OUT NOW: Elvis

 The story of Elvis Presley (Austin Butler), as related by his vampiric manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks).

This movie is way more fun than I thought it would be.

I think a few things were working in my favor: 

Based on the hyperactive trailers my expectations were lowered. I have enjoyed some of Baz Luhrmann’s past work but I mostly find it overheated in its style and primary color emotions.

I am skeptical of most biopics, and a few days before Elvis I watched Milos Forman’s take on Andy Kaufman, Man on the Moon, which summed up my problems with the genre: an attempt to take on all the key events without a clear focus or throughline. It also felt like the film failed to remold the genre to suit its subject.

Anchored by a scorching performance from Austin Butler, Elvis careens through its central character’s life, attempting to mirror the sensation of his rocketing popularity - and his inevitable fall. 

One thing I loved about the movie was how it energized key moments of recognition - the two I noticed were a young Elvis becoming enraptured by both blues and gospel within the course of a single scene, and Colonel Parker’s first sighting of Elvis’s effect on audiences.

Those scenes carry a charge that the movie never really reaches again. There is an energy of discovery, of inspiration, of transformation. 

As the title character, Austin Butler is great. He has a solid handle on the familiar voice, but he never feels like an impersonator. His on-stage presentation carries a physical energy and sensuality that creates a visceral sense of Elvis’s star persona. Butler is so convincing that the scenes of lust and affection from audiences feel totally justified.

In his debut as a villain, Tom Hanks may have a wonky accent but otherwise it felt like perfect casting. You need someone incredibly likable to get under Elvis’s skin for so long, and Hanks’s projection of decency is the perfect cover for Parker’s hold on the rock star.

The movie is framed by Parker as an unreliable narrator, attempting to absolve himself of responsibility for Elvis’s demise. 

While this is an interesting conceit, it does mean the movie falls afoul of the biopic’s key stumbling block - apart from a few moments, we are onlookers at Elvis. We never really get a sense of what he is thinking.

Maybe because the movie is based around a musician, and Luhrmann’s strength is audiovisual, Elvis works as a jukebox version of Elvis’s life. It is long but it never feels repetitive.

One underlying issue with the film is that it is the Cliff’s Notes version of Elvis’s life. Scenes where Elvis interacts with the black artists who built the genre he rode to stardom (including BB King, Big Mama Thornton and Little Richard) feel like missing scenes from the musical biopic parody Walk Hard. The movie highlights the effect Black music had on Elvis as a kid, but that is about it. The movie does include key snippets from across his life where he talks about the history of the genre, but it feels cursory. 

The movie does try to bring up the subject early on, when it contrasts Elvis’s performances with the outrage of the white public and government representatives, but the movie loses any sense of Elvis’s place in American society and culture as soon as he is shipped off to serve in the Army. Just like the real-life figure, the movie loses what little edge it had. 

Speaking of edge, if you are expecting the film to deal with Elvis’s relationship with a teenage Priscilla, forget about it. 

It is omissions like this that make Elvis satisfying as anything other than a fun highlight reel of Elvis performing his songs. 

It is a good time, but it is ultimately just a souped-up version of the familiar Elvis story.