Deborah Ross

The hips are electric but you will be willing it to stay put: Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis reviewed

Elvis meets, woos and marries Priscilla in two minutes flat

The hips are electric: Austin Butler as Elvis in Baz Luhrmann’s fizzing biopic. Credit: © 2022 Warner Bros/Hugh Stewart 
issue 25 June 2022

Elvis is Baz Luhrmann’s biopic of Elvis Presley and it’s cradle to grave but told at such a gallop you’ll be willing it to stay put even if it’s just for two minutes. You may even be begging: Baz, come on, just hold still. But no, we’re off again. I’ve had fever dreams that have been less delirious. But on the plus side, even if it’s never deep or enlightening, it has a fizzing energy, and because it doesn’t dwell on anything, we don’t dwell on fat, sad Elvis at the end. Which is a relief.

The film opens as it means to go on. That is, flashily. Even the Warner Brothers logo (WB) is sparklingly rhinestoned. The framing device is Elvis’s manager Colonel Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks with a horrific combover, a ton of padding, and those big trousers Robert Maxwell used to wear, and Ian Paisley too.

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