Elvis

“Elvis reinforces the flimsy justifications often given for Presley’s appropriation of Black culture.”

Title: Elvis (2022)
Director: Baz Luhrmann 👨🏼🇦🇺
Writers: Baz Luhrmann 👨🏼🇦🇺, Sam Bromell 👨🏼🇦🇺, Craig Pearce 👨🏼🇦🇺, and Jeremy Doner 👨🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Ro Moore 👩🏾🇺🇸

Technical: 3/5

Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis chronicles the rise of the titular icon from young adulthood through the height (and stagnation) of his career, up to the events that led to his premature death. Told from the point of view of Presley's (Austin Butler) crooked manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), Luhrmann builds his narrative on a foundation of pop aesthetics, hyper-musicality, horniness, and montages that mimic archival footage. He’s aided by cinematographer Mandy Walker, who skillfully balances natural lighting with more sensational, and at turns edgy, visuals.

The expected beats of a rock and roll biopic fold into a dramatic spectacle in the vein of Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), with painstaking commitment to period details but a cavalier handling of time. Its turbocharged pacing and soundscape intentionally cater to music fans and highlight pivotal career moments. The film uses Colonel Parker’s broody and self-serving account of his relationship with Presley to open a nostalgic window into the star’s personal life and social upheavals of the times. But that narrow focus guarantees that the more controversial parts of Presley's personal life, or his larger impact on culture, feel glossed over.

Butler’s uncanny portrayal of Presley offers flashes of brilliance but drives home the fact the story lacks necessary complexity. It constantly overlooks Presley’s viewpoint, focusing instead on Parker’s Svengali-like narration, to its detriment. A capable supporting ensemble feels similarly underutilized. The end result is a story that treats Presley as a passenger in a fairytale, more focused on iconography than a true examination of the man’s life or legacy.

Gender: 2.5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? NOPE

Helen Thomson plays Presley’s beloved mother, Gladys Presley, with a vulnerability that lays the groundwork for an interesting mother-son relationship. The first half of the movie showcases a few pivotal moments of her guiding a young, charming Presley, but the script soon flattens her into a caricature of a bible-thumping helicopter parent. Parker’s sneering perspective presents her as a lost woman, prone to alcoholism before she’s caustically killed off.

Compounding the ways in which Elvis erases its women, particularly Presley’s only wife, Luhrmann offers a paper-thin Priscilla Presley (Olivia DeJonge). She’s barely in the movie despite her importance in the star’s life. The script “yada-yadas” the highly problematic nature of their 15-year age gap, then skips past the majority of their relationship other than one encounter designed to present her, briefly, as a long-suffering spouse.

Both actresses approach what little they were asked to do with precision and skill. So it’s a shame their story arcs weren’t used to explore Presley’s upbringing and his subsequent struggle to balance fame with a personal life. Nor are the women ever shown interacting with each other, further removing any semblance of dimension.

Race: 2.5/5

Elvis’ plot works overtime to reframe his relationships and influences, all while smothering real-world criticisms that dogged his steps. Rather than take the time to confront the complicated nature of Presley’s relationship to Black music, Luhrmann takes great pains to include visuals of the man immersed in Black culture, notably among gospel music and the blues. But because Parker disparages Black people and views Presley’s obsession with Black culture as a threat to his money-making endeavors, the opportunity to dig into this aspect of his life is not only lost—it reinforces the flimsy justifications often given for Presley’s appropriation of Black culture.

Adding insult to injury, Black icons such as B.B. King (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), Big Momma Thornton (Shonka Dukureh), and Little Richard (Alton Mason) are present but stereotypically one-note. The decision to deny these influential figures any real voice, and presenting their lives and relationships to Presley through the prejudiced lens of Parker, does more harm than good. It feels blasphemous to reduce talented actors like Harrison Jr. to a single conversation that stands in for entire eras of musical (and social) revolutions.

Mediaversity Grade: C- 2.67/5

Though cinematic and engaging, Elvis feels bloated. It offers all the glitz and glam an iconic figure like Elvis Presley deserves, but the writers’ efforts to steer clear of anything controversial strands the biopic in shallow waters. Ultimately, it’s the film’s approach to the star’s life through the lens of outside villainy that leaves the viewing experience ultimately unsatisfying.

Like Elvis? Try these other titles featuring singers.

Grade: CLiMarch 7, 2023