Written by Cameron Geiser

If you’ve seen a biopic about a famous musician before, you likely know what you’re getting into within the sub-genre of films. Most of these stories follow a similar structure with frequently hit upon tropes of the music industry and the typical trials and tribulations of each film’s main character. Be it Ray, Walk The Line, Rocketman, or Selena, most musical biopics tend to follow a general structure. Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis is cut from that same cloth, for the most part. Over the course of the film we follow Elvis' (Austin Butler) entire career from his rise to fame and prominence in the music industry to his troubled Las Vegas period near the end. The overarching perspective of the film comes not from Elvis himself though, but rather his longtime manager, Colonel Tom Parker who's played with a greedy God-given tenacity for manipulation by Tom Hanks. The Colonel opens the film when he’s essentially on his deathbed in the mid 1990’s trying to convince himself, and us, that he didn’t kill Elvis Presley like the headlines said. Thus the Colonel is our guide and narrator to the story of Elvis.

While the whole film was fairly entertaining the best parts were in his early days in the 1950’s as Elvis struggled against authority for his provocative dancing and the insanity of the segregation laws of the time. Though his comeback in 1968 after his seven year hiatus in Hollywood was a close second. These portions of the film hit hardest on its central theme (other than Colonel Tom Parker being a scheming, manipulative, manager), that Elvis had an almost spiritual connection to music that was more powerful and immortal than any pile of money would ever be. The through-line of it all is Elvis’ connection to music and how it allowed him to be himself, how it was his superpower through which he saved his family from economic devastation, and how he connected to people through that shared passion. The scenes that best capture this essence are when Elvis has a conversation with BB King (Kelvin Harrison Jr) while hanging out at a small black club in Memphis or years later when Elvis defies the Colonel and meets with Steve Binder (Dacre Montgomery) hanging out on the Hollywood sign to devise his TV special comeback.

You know exactly what you’re getting into with *Elvis*.

As for the format of the story being told and the filmmaking itself, it's good enough and stylized so much so that it does stand out from the crowd more than your average movie within this sub-genre, but it's nothing groundbreaking if I'm being honest. While Baz Luhrmann’s past films didn't always hit the mark for me, especially his Great Gatsby, the over the top persona of Elvis Presley and his flair for showmanship does seem to be a better match for the director's sensibilities. Indeed much of the editing, cinematography, and overall flow of the film is closer to that of Speed Racer than any other musician based biopic that I’ve ever seen. If you're going to make a biopic about one of the most popular and influential pop culture figures of the twentieth century, it makes sense to treat him and his story as larger than life, and this film certainly accomplishes that. Though while Baz does try to get close to how Elvis felt at crucial moments in his life, like when his mother passed away, the film never truly establishes any intimacy with who Elvis was as a flesh and blood human being. The filmmaker is more content with putting the focus on how the Colonel would use Elvis’ lowest points for his own gain over time instead.

Elvis is a perfectly “fine” film. It’s serviceable as a biopic about the career of Elvis Presley with the filmmaking better serving the sensationalism surrounding Elvis than the actual humanity of who he was. The pacing however is astoundingly good for its nearly three hour runtime. Though we might get a bit too much of Colonel Tom Parker at times, the performances of Austin Butler as Elvis and Tom Hanks as his money hungry manager are both quite good and the heart and soul of the film. If you're itching for the next good musical biopic, this is it.

Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.