Elvis

Ten Second Review: It’s a bit too long, a bit too much and yet not quite enough; Baz Lurman strikes again.

I wasn’t particularly excited for this film. Yet another music biopic? I detailed my fatigue for the genre way back in Rocketman and yet I’ll never turn down the opportunity for a night at the silver screen.

The film is a whistle stop tour of the life and times of the king of rock and roll. It favours breadth of time over detail and leans into nodding toward instead of explaining in full.

I have to say there was actually a lot I enjoyed about the film. The performances felt good and certainly sold me on the story. Elvis’ music remains incredible and the bones of the story offer an intrigue, even if it feels surface level all the way through. 

It would seem all the flaws live with the direction and the ultimate vision for the thing. 

The problem with being a certain level of director, especially when you are known to have an overly stylistic tilt, is that I imagine less and less people tell you “no”. I’m not a huge Elvis fan, but I do love music history, so I would say I know a smidge more than the average person about Elvis’ life. Only by a hair though. This film rabbles on for close enough to three hours and I don’t feel like I know anymore about him. It feels as though someone (looking at you here, Baz) read his Wikipedia page and was like, “let’s do that”. It jumps around in a slew of rapid fire quasi-connected scenes that read like the awkward gaps in an online bio. Before you know it Elvis is dead and the credits are rolling. 

It can’t quite decide it’s point of view and it can’t quite decide it’s style so instead it doesn’t settle on a point of view and just does everything loud in place of a style. Hey, you like the moody gold pallet of Gatsby? It’s here! You liked the reframed pop music in Moulin Rouge? It’s back! You liked the juxtaposition of a modern Romeo and Juliet? Well, roll up roll up, the new Baz Lurhman is in cinemas. 

I reiterate, there is a good film here, but there are several bad ones trying to crawl through it.

The big names on the soundtrack have made a fun album, but it’s jarring and doesn’t fit in the way it’s being used in the film. The use of CGI here doesn’t add a dreamlike quality, it feels cheap and loses a sense of sincere grandeur that Elvis, as a figure, requires. The length, and the lack of depth, underline a director past his prime indulging in vanity projects with no one sitting him down and telling him, “no”.

Is it enjoyable? Yes. Could it be better? Definitely. I think I would still recommend it (for those who can stand the runtime), but I will continue to not be expectant and excited at the releases of Baz Lurhman films.