Audiences can in fact help themselves from falling in love with the new 2022 biographical film, Elvis, for it was nothing more than mediocre.
The movie tells the backstory of the big hit rockstar, Elvis Presley, and shows viewers his roots. Having been directed by Baz Luhrmann, viewers would expect nothing less than an incredibly dramatic film which is exactly what they’ll get, but with a side of tacky effects. Starting off with a huge rhinestoned “E.P” to open the film, which surprisingly stands for “Elvis Presley” and not for an “Excessive Production”, though it could easily go both ways. Luhrmann being a maximalist director, really outdoes himself with this production. I mean really outdoes himself. This lengthy film is a huge sensory overload, much like his party scene in The Great Gatsby. Oy Vey— what an eyesore.
Austin Butler was casted as Elvis Presley, and fit the role perfectly without a doubt. On top of looking extremely similar to Presley, Butler surprisingly sang for all of his scenes. Not bad—but he didn’t quite knock my socks off.
Though the film is titled Elvis, it would be better titled Colonel Tom Parker. This movie surrounded his manager rather than the actual star. It’s hard to blame the director though since they casted Tom Hanks as Parker. Hanks is an excellent actor and portrayed the annoying, egotistical maniac of a manager exquisitely. The first scene of the movie is Col. Parker for crying out loud. Though Hanks takes over the majority of the screen time, it might actually be necessary for this film since it showcases Presley on his rise to stardom.
This movie has the basic rockstar storyline: Young kid with talent gets scouted by the villainous manager with billionaire dreams, and the poor kid ends up in piles of drugs and a huge parental despair. Forget it being a biographical film; this felt like a DC movie, complete with comic strip scenes and even included Superman. Childhood Presley ran around carrying a lightning bolt over his chest as a child, which made it hard to differentiate between an Elvis or The Flash film. Was that at all necessary? This film would've been excellent if the directors were the same who directed Bohemian Rhapsody (Bryan Singer and Dexter Fletcher). Now that is an exceptional Rock n’ Roll biographical film with just the right amount of glam and appropriate amounts of screen time for characters.
The soundtrack was pretty questionable at times, too. The setting was taking place in the ‘50s through the '70s, therefore the random moments where scenes contained modern pop music may catch the viewer off guard. I understand the attempt of trying to connect with younger audiences by using modern artists, but this is Elvis we’re talking about here.
On the bright side, plenty of scenes showcased where his taste in music originated from and rightfully gave all the credit to the Black culture that surrounded him throughout his childhood. He would be nowhere without the culture of Soul and Blues. It’s easily forgotten where Presley gets his talent from and this movie shed light on it. Also, this movie also includes him with his 14-year-old girlfriend Priscilla, which is just the cherry on top of this whole film. Lhurmann is constantly holding Presley accountable for his wrongs in this movie, and though it is poorly made, he gets his point across.