The biopic may be long on spectacle and short on insight but with Austin Butler's knockout performance as The King at its heart, it's well worth watching.
This is especially true early on when Luhrmann plunges us into the world of the Black music that influenced Elvis but was not accepted by the mainstream of a segregated America until someone like Elvis came along. The appearances by Alton Mason as Little Richard, Gary Clark Jr. as Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup and the singer Yola as Sister Rosetta Tharpe may be brief but they are absolutely electric while Kelvin Harrison Jr.’s B.B. King bears a relatable wisdom that helps keep Presley grounded.
Of course, none of that would matter if didn’t have someone playing Elvis who’s convincing playing someone who is such a familiar cultural touchstone. But Luhrmann found him in the relatively unknown Austin Butler from such series as “The Shannara Chronicles” and “The Carrie Diaries.” Butler doesn’t just capture Presley hip-shaking, live intensity but his conflicted, off-stage persona as well. His performance shines as the film’s heart and soul.
But Luhrmann, who wrote the script with Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce and Jeremy Doner, has more on his mind than just re-creating the hysteria that surrounded Presley’s career. He wants to plumb the relationship between Presley and his secretive, Svengali-like manager Colonel Tom Parker and it’s here where the movie stumbles. While there’s no doubt something intriguing there, “Elvis” doesn’t really get beyond the obvious.
And its portrayal of Parker varies. On the one hand, he’s presented as a complete puppetmaster who controls Presley’s every move but then he’s also so out of it that he was completely surprised and dumbfounded by a heavily anticipated Elvis Christmas TV special in which the “hippie” directors decided to ditch all the Christmas music.
But that lack of depth may not matter in the end. For all of the movie’s visceral, visual appeal, it remains to be seen if all of Luhrmann’s razzle-dazzle will be enough to save “Elvis” from the miserable box-office fate of so many films aimed at adults this year. If “Elvis” does manage to attract a large audience to a film about someone with whom many younger moviegoers are only vaguely familiar, that might be Luhrmann’s best special effect of all.
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