Elvis

It was agony to spend nine years waiting for Baz Luhrmann's next feature film, but at least in terms of the visuals, the editing, and the overall use of the author's characteristic mannerisms, Elvis didn't disappoint, quite the contrary. Everything shines, pulsates, and moves from side to side, from window to window, or over the rooftops exactly as the fans would have hoped. The problematic yet daring creative twist is the narrator. To distance oneself from the idolized icon and let someone speak who, even with the greatest objectivity, is the antagonist, could have resulted in an absolute screenwriting disaster. Instead, Elvis is more alive than other biopics, but also not always comfortable for the audience and sometimes even venomous. In short, it's as if Fletcher were telling us about Australia, or even if the Duke himself was guiding us with his voice after Moulin Rouge! – a completely different kind of emotional experience. I understand everyone for whom this change didn't land right, but I also understand everyone who felt that the creators were forcing them to start hating Tom Hanks. I stayed close to the enthusiastic fever of all the camera and sound tricks, but slightly bitter that all of Baz's films in the last thirty years have resonated with me a bit better. (10/10/2022)

An energetic romp until the overweight, stoned ending. Baz Luhrmann piles up opulent shots, attractive camera fly-overs and the remixed and reimagined Elvis hits in the background pull you into the story immediately. Hanks’ unreliable narrator, denying any responsibility for the King’s stagnation and eventual decay, is an unlikeable, calculating bastard. His typical economic dodging, the merchandise scene and the corporate over-emphasis on security are the essence of everything that is bad about today’s world and Tom "America’s boy next door" Hanks lays it on us with great verve. Austin Butler is uncompromising and dedicated as Elvis, very faithfully copying his expressive dancing style; Feyd-Rautha is in good hands. The story follows a classic rise and fall pattern, while also going up interesting side roads, whether it is the luck of a white kid who was lucky enough to grow up in a better and all-round righter (black) environment. The timing of the premiere of this movie at the end of a PROUD month is a master stroke straight out of the Colonel’s textbook, the parallels are crystal clear. And Parker’s efforts to keep the King away from politics, family rows, disintegration of marriage, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But it never runs on the spot. A most quality memorial to a legend. (03/07/2022)

When Baz Luhrmann chose Elvis Presley as his new subject, it was clear that once again it would be a film that you had to see more than once. That’s exactly what happened. The result is brilliant. A great homage to classic great biopics with a fatal antagonist (in the style of Amadeus) and the splendor of a dying carnival world (American Horror Story: Freak Show or Nightmare Alley). Where are my DVDs of G. I. Blues, Blue Hawaii and Girls! Girls! Girls!? ;) (25/07/2022)

In many ways this is a remarkable piece of work that shows its protagonist through the eyes of the antagonist, the music and the image of Elvis as a construct of the environment and the media, and also as the passion it held in one man, controlled like a puppet by every greedy little bugger who wanted to make a buck out of Presley, which eventually drove the whole world mad. Elvis's career was a ground-breaking show with an impact on pop culture that even the Beatles didn't have in Britain, so it's clear that Luhrmann opts for heavily pop-cultural filmmaking devices – from splitscreen to extravagant compositional continuity to flashbacks and flashforwards, with a narrator who is utterly reliable in all his guile and cunning. Tom Hanks may never have entertained me like this before, and as the manager, Parker dangerously steals some scenes for himself – as does Luhrmann, who dominates the fragmented but iron-clad and coherent plot much like Parker dominates Presley's life, reduced to a glittering pompous cliché. "I'm caught in a trap, I can't walk out....," Elvis sings in Casino as his manager makes a deal with the devil and takes absolute control. Luhrmann showers us with vivid scenes, but never leave us floundering, clinging to his increasingly fractured protagonist as the noose around his ill-fated life partner tightens. Everything is perfectly aligned, each act and each collage complementing each other in an almost constant spatio-temporal communication, which in Luhrmann's circus rhythm is almost dizzying. How long can a man be an attraction when he himself is denied pure joy? Countless motifs for comparison emerge from the film, which makes it easier to navigate the dynamic arrangement, and the fact that the director, with his perfectly calculated mannerisms, sometimes takes us too far away from Elvis can be forgiven – the final archive shots bring such lumps in our throats that not even the greedy Parker would take them. And I don't want to blame Butler at all, who was really amazing and blended so well with Elvis that after a while I didn't notice the actor, but only the character, something I couldn't do with Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody. Richard Roxburgh, my still favourite Sherlock Holmes from a not so favourite film, was also very enjoyable, and thanks for Little Richard. This is how you make biopics about cultural icons, through the lens of a culture that was crumbling before your eyes, and all it needed to be happy was a good wiggle in its hips. Again and again. 90 % (29/06/2022)

Austin Butler looks nothing like Elvis, he doesn't have his unique charisma (no one does), but he’s a total magnet for women with his knockout looks, so he's a clear casting hit. Unlike the overrated Bohemian Rhapsody, which was held under the authoritative thumb of Brian May and where Rami Malek only played Mercury, Butler became Elvis for two and a half hours with his movements, his sexy deep voice, and the sparkle in his eye, which Malek didn't have. The first hour is a roller coaster ride, the timing of the scenes, the blending with the comic book panels, the craziness of the female fans, the riveting live performance where Elvis was arrested, the editing is fantastic. But there’s one big BUT. From the moment the Beatlemania fatally interferes with Presley's career, the film loses traction and, rather than focusing on the first ten years or so of his career, when he influenced rock 'n' roll like no one else, the story focuses on the last phase of his work and life, which is no longer so crucial and interesting. I would cut short everything that revolved around his career winding down at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. PS: Tom Hanks is perfect as the backstabbing manager. This is where I'm sure at least an Oscar nomination will clink. (15/08/2022)