I feel like I have lost count of the Elvis biopics and I was hopeful. Baz has a visual style that can make anything interesting. Unfortunately, he choose not use his touch in the slightest. Its as if Lubitsch decided to make a remake of an Andy Hardy or a Ma and Pa Kettle movie and left the original in tact. No Lubitsch touch… No Baz touch. So this film takes the prize for biggest disappointment. The performances were spectacular — Elvis and Tom were well played, but this is hagiography not a bio pick. Can we at least put a little responsibility on Elvis for his choices. I have no doubt that Parker was an evil bastard that encouraged his drug abuse, but by the end, the only two people Elvis trusted were Tom Parker and Richard Nixon. At some point you have to take responsibility for your choices. Elvis pimping for Nixon broke my hear. But the lack of visual flair is what broke my heart even more.
Sloves' Rants
I went to see with film with some trepidation as I’m not a Baz fan. I think cutting fuzz tone guitar leads into Elvis’ first performance is clearly the Baz touch. However, he did not try to sustain this and presented a more conventional biopic, one that I thoroughly enjoyed. As hagiography, I wish he would have leaned into a few more musical sequences. The performances of That’s All Right and Unchained Melody in Vegas are probably my favorite sequences in the film. I did my fair share of “did that really happen” research after I saw the film. Predictably, the answer is mixed.
Yes! more big musical numbers… and I still can’t get over the fact it never address his chumminess with Nixon