By Seth Lukas Hynes
Elvis
Starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks
Rated M
4.5/5
Elvis is a stylish and poignant biopic detailing the rise, success and struggles of Elvis Presley (Austin Butler), one of the most famous musicians in history.
Much like Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln or Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote, Austin Butler utterly embodies Elvis Presley on-screen (in a performance Elvis’s own family have spoken very highly of). Butler superbly captures Elvis’s sensitivity, intoxicating masculinity and tremendous showmanship, and will undoubtedly be a frontrunner at next year’s Oscars.
The film is replete with director Baz Luhrman’s bombastic, dazzling style, but this flashiness grows more grounded as celebrity takes its toll on Elvis. The film delves deep into Elvis’s connection with African-American music culture, and shows his rise to legendary status, as a disruptive figure inspiring both frenzied admiration and moral outrage, but doesn’t shy away from his growing health, drug and family issues.
The film is very long (159 minutes) but never drags, and the musical numbers are soaring, passionate spectacles that further the tension between Elvis being true to himself and the rigours of business.
Oddly enough, the one weak link in the film is Tom Hanks, who plays Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’s long-time friend and manager. Hanks plays a compelling antagonist – a greasy, manipulative leech who nonetheless guides Elvis to stardom – but several scenes feature unnecessary, irritating narration from Hanks, and the film has a bizarre framing device of Parker on his death-bed, imagining himself in a casino and telling Elvis’s story.
A sterling diamond-studded character study that could do with a little less narration, Elvis is playing in most Victorian cinemas.
