Elvis (2022)

Baz Luhrman returns for the first time since his turgid and lavish The Great Gatsby (2013) with this partial biopic of the king himself, Elvis Presley. Focusing mainly on the relationship between Presley and his manager Colonel Tom Parker, Luhrman throws everything at the wall in the first hour and a half of the two and a half hour runtime, with mixed results. Austin Butler is astonishing as Elvis, and when you see real life footage later on in the film of scenes recreated by Luhrman, you fully understand how brilliantly Butler encapsulates the icon. The same can’t really be said for Tom Hanks as Parker. Although Hanks is eminently watchable, often superb, here his accent is a problem, taking you out of the film as you simply see Hanks on screen, and not Parker, especially with Hanks’ questionable accent. Luhrman hasn’t learned his lessons from The Great Gatsby, his furious pacing means so many things happen in the first half with nothing hanging around long enough to grab you emotionally, and considering how influential the era was for music, his insistence on placing more current releases over certain scenes is frankly baffling. He would do well from some self-discipline, and strangely in this case stretching the film out somewhat for an extra half hour may have resulted in a more focused movie. That said, the final hour is very good, mainly because there are more displays from Butler depicting live Elvis performances, and Luhrman finally digs into his main characters’ substance and family issues, leading to a focused, entertaining, and well-directed final hour. Butler was a worthy Oscar winner, but the fact that Elvis was nominated for best picture at the Oscars ahead of Aftersun (2022) for example, remains truly baffling. 6.6/10