One of the most dazzling directors of our time takes on one of the most influential, successful singers of all time – creating an intoxicating excess of a biopic: Director Baz Luhrmann’s beautiful film bio “Elvis” takes the glittering shine and the frenzied pace of other Luhrmann films like ‘Moulin Rouge’, and adds a good dose of superhero pathos. What is finished is a musical drug rush of a film that creates a monument to the subject with great style.
With a worldwide box office gross of more than $288 million, “Elvis” also qualifies as a minor blockbuster. Especially considering how difficult it has been for non-franchise films at the box office in 2022. The redundant biopic “Elvis” is now available for subscription Amazon Prime Video available.
Tip for anyone who continues to collect physical media: Contrary to the trend towards increasingly thinner extras, ‘Elvis’ was retained Bluray* And 4K disc* various bonus material. This includes featurettes on the film’s music and the enormous effort that went into recreating the iconic looks, costumes and sets from Elvis’ life.
“Elvis”: Bombastic frenzy with the rock ‘n’ roll superhero
The young singer Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) is still relatively unknown, but he reliably creates a sensation wherever he performs: with his incomparable hip swing, his soulful, powerful voice and his sensual attitude, he makes the ladies scream. Moreover, his unique mix of different music styles has everything it takes to storm the charts.
So the shady carnival manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) grabs the naive mama’s boy and turns him into a world star. Hits, scandals, a complicated love story with the young Priscilla (Olivia DeJonge), drugs, exploitation and changing tastes follow. What an exciting yet dramatic uproar!
Luhrmann is a director you either love or hate – and ‘Elvis’ won’t change that: Or you get carried away by the fact that the Australian uses glitter, narrative speed, manic tracking shots, dazzling costumes and wild image montages to translate Elvis’ excessive rush of success into film form. Or you are annoyed by it, despite all the coherence between content and narrative form. Either you celebrate the patchwork of aesthetic influences that Luhrmann creates in tribute to the fact that Elvis had such a variety of role models, from comic book heroes to gospel to blues stars who were not sufficiently recognized at the time. Or you roll your eyes in exhaustion.
But there’s one thing you shouldn’t do: label ‘Elvis’ as a ‘style over substance’ movie, because despite all the noise and smoke, Luhrmann does not lose sight of the tragedy inherent in his story. And even though Luhrmann remains dramaturgically close to the standard music biopic scheme, he sprinkles countless observations throughout. About Elvis’ position as someone who was inspired by eclectic sources and about himself who inspired a wide variety of people. About the timelessness of pop culture debates. And about the thin line that separates art and commerce.
Although Luhrmann’s style once again proves a captivating effect, it is Austin Butler’s excellent, layered performance as Elvis Presley on which “Elvis” rests.. The fact that the side characters are all just gimmicks and fake characters is not even a disadvantage in this Las Vegas spectacle of a film, but in a strange way it is the point.