Words by Billy Edwards <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of America’s greatest heroes has finally got the awe-inspiring cinema treatment he deserved. \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffELVIS’ is an electric tribute to a masterful showman, flying by despite its well-over two-hour runtime. Directed by Baz Luhrmann in his colourfully kaleidoscopic style, it is very much as theatrical as Elvis’ awesome performances \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 it looks \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffWalk Hard’ or \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffSpinal Tap’ dead in the eye, doubling down on the now-permeated musical biopic tropes with little subtlety, the most sensational of these being the intensely dramatic moment where the Colonel discovers Elvis is white. Luckily, the \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffLuhrmannisms’ calm down around the half-hour mark as Austin Butler takes the spotlight. He too is sensational. He transforms into the King and has it all \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 the look, the moves, and even the voice: Austin sings Elvis’ first records with gusto. His quivering hip-shakes are instantly as exciting as the real thing. What a perfect piece of casting \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 you can tell Butler understands the importance of this role to millions upon millions and gives it his all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Much has been made of Tom Hanks in a rare villainous role as Elvis’ megalomanic manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Cartoonish whilst cunning, Hanks toys with the question of whether the Colonel was a blessing or a terrible hindrance to the boy’s talent. Capitalism incarnate, Parker was a hard-nosed dollar-chaser who played his prot\u251c\u00aeg\u251c\u00ae as a pawn: manipulating Presley into throwaway films, uninspired music, and exhausting live appearances he didn’t want. The most impressive Luhrmann spectacle concerns Presley in the 60s – a flurry of recreations of Elvis’ hack-job movies are segmented on screen, accompanied by a fantastic mash-up of Britney’s \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffToxic’ and \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffViva Las Vegas’. It’s a stark depiction of how the Colonel ensured that Presley was excluded from a role in the creative sandpit of 1960s culture. His creepiness was well-acted \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 his slow-burning manipulation of Elvis, deep in the eyes behind his grins, as he twirled his walking stick like a cattle prod, was doubly unsettling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n