If you haven't heard about a little movie called Elvis, then you are probably living under a rock. Elvis was released in mid-2022 and unsurprisingly follows the story of Elvis Presley. And if you don't know who Elvis Presley is, then I'm not going to bother trying to explain.

I am not a fan of Baz Lurhmann films. I haven't seen a whole lot of his movies but in the ones that I have seen, I struggle to understand the directorial choices. I find the movies to be weird and unrealistic. I always feel like I'm watching a kid's movie made for adults. However, I had heard that Elvis wasn't as strange as Lurhmann's other films. Plus Austin Butler had only been praised for his portrayal of the music icon. So I decided to give the movie a go whilst on a flight to Hawaii and at the very least would feel that I hadn't wasted two and a half hours of my life.

I agree with what I had been told: Elvis is the least Baz of all of the Baz movies I've seen. The movie wasn't as strange as many of his other films. Like most of his films, Elvis opened by going a bit Baz-crazy and then cooled down throughout the film. But this Baz-craziness at the start of the movie felt appropriate and I could actually understand the directorial choices. That's not to say that some questionable decisions were made throughout the making of the film. Firstly, who decided to introduce Doja Cat and Eminem to the 1950s? To be honest, it was probably our good friend Baz. For some unfathomable reason, he decided to underscore the 50's Rock 'n' Roll scenes with 21st-century rap artists. Then there was also the insane decision to cast Tom Hanks as the infamous Colonel Tom Parker. I like Tom Hanks in all of his roles so was willing to give him a chance in this film, but he really wasn't great. But because of my love for Tom Hanks, I am going to say that this was purely down to the casting. To be fair, Tom Hanks wasn't as terrible as some people on the internet might claim (because he's Tom Hanks and would have probably done a much better job than me) but still, the role should have been given to someone else.

On the other hand, who cast Austin Butler as the man himself? Surely that wasn't the same deranged person who cast Tom Hanks as the colonel. (By the way, if you hadn't heard, Austin Butler was a perfect Elvis and he should have won the Oscar - enough said.)

I found that all of the music elements in this movie (aside from Doja Cat's appearance) were portrayed really well. I thought that the movie was a brilliant representation of the music industry and the challenges faced by massive music artists such as Elvis. This movie built up to Elvis's first performance flawlessly. And then these performances themselves were a superb replica of the real Elvis performances.

I found this movie to be a bit reminiscent of a documentary. I'm not sure if that was the intention but I think that it worked in favour of the film. The movie started at a very fast pace with me wondering how they'd be able to drag this out for two and a half hours but then slowed down for some of the more emotional moments (I think that's what documentaries do; to be honest I don't watch a lot of docos).

Elvis went in the opposite direction to how I feel with most of Baz Luhrmann's films. I usually feel that his movies are unrealistic and overly strange, whereas I found Elvis to be a perfect representation of the cultural icon and the music industry in general. I usually find myself questioning most of Baz's directorial choices, whereas I found myself applauding a lot of his choices in Elvis (maybe aside from a couple; I'm not going to stop talking about Doja Cat). I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed Elvis. I don't think I'd want to watch it again but I would certainly recommend it to most movie-goers.

I'm going to end this review with once again, as many other reviewers have done, celebrating Austin Butler's portrayal as the King of Rock 'n' Roll; he was perfect.

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Starring: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks

Year released: 2022

My rating: 8/10

Review by Tristan Carr

Last edited: 14/05/2023