Elvis

Baz Luhrmann’s directing style in Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, and The Great Gatsby are over the top modernizations on classic love stories. Specifically, his style incorporates the utilization of modern songs interwoven alongside period tracks, being able to capture the raw energy during musical performances as if you’re there, layering a scene with a lot of various textures, the fast-paced cinematography / editing, and the bold color choices from costume down to production design.

Due to his unique interpretation of material, I thought would have showcased Elvis’ struggle between the glamour of the fame, addiction to perform at all costs, and the severe low points throughout his career in a visceral way. The heavy-handed aesthetic decisions needed to be contained because it drowned the films’ ability to have any dramatic depth.

Upfront the musical performances by Austin Butler who plays Elvis are very impressive and entertaining. The runtime is three hours. The content isn’t worth your commitment to sit there that long. Skip throughout the film stopping to get the gist of moments.

Elvis is a biopic of his entire life, with emphasis on the relationship between him and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks).

One of the main problems that persists throughout the entire film is the amount of voice over Colonel Tom Parker has in describing crucial moments in Elvis’ life, and in their business relationship together over the decades. Instead of living through these moments in real time, allowing the audience to make up their own minds about certain events as things are playing out, we are hand fed everything for three hours. It was such a detriment to Elvis’ development as a character which was flat throughout the film. For instance, at the beginning of the film Colonel Tom Parker is narrating Elvis’ journey on Beale Street, home of the Blues. I don’t understand why that was necessary when this was a big deal in Elvis’ development as an artist in terms of stylistic influences. That is a very intimate aspect of his life and it is something that Colonel Tom Parker couldn’t have understood enough to take the audience to the full depth and richness of that culture and why it was actually significant to Elvis. It didn’t make sense to have his input on almost everything.

Elvis is portrayed as having issues but there isn’t enough of a balance between the good wholesome lost artist struggling to survive the decades in conflict with his very complex relationship with Priscilla, addiction to pills and validation in performing onstage, or even his severe depressive states. We barely dip our toe into the layers of Elvis’ personality. I was hoping for more of a raw dramatic exploration within the explosive style of his decisions that led to his death. I wish Darren Aronofsky would have directed Elvis.

The pacing is set at 200mph, but no scenes have time to develop enough to allow an audience to have empathy for any situation. We are seeing the entire movie from a bird’s eye view of how the events of his life played out.

Viewers should watch a credible music documentary on his life instead.

Elvis is now streaming on HBO Max, and available to rent on Amazon Prime.