“Elvis” is a Miscalculated, Nightmarish, and Dishonest Portrayal

Baz Luhrmann’s gaudy biopic is a claustrophobic headache with a narrow depiction of history

There's a particularly annoying phenomenon where biopic directors try to use their filmmaking prowess to one-up the skills of their subjects, and so the film becomes a competition between creator and subject about the notability of their respective work. This is precisely what happens in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, a glitzy and obnoxious atrocity that never takes its foot off the gas pedal. Luhrmann is well-known for his unorthodox takes on period pieces, and this movie doesn't stray from the rest, including noticeably modern stylistic choices and needle drops from Doja Cat and Kacey Musgraves. The film feels like a two-and-a-half-hour headache, each moment whizzing past without any time to settle before another gaudy montage flashes across the screen. 

Elvis’s strongest anchor is Austin Butler's leading performance, which is genuinely quite engaging, but he fights an uphill battle against every other creative force involved in the movie. With better direction and a stronger screenplay, Butler wouldn't have been half bad - but his performance is surrounded by garish visuals and editing. Additionally, the makeup and lighting make each character look misshapen and uncanny, and these off-putting visuals never cease to be alarming. Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) is the most grotesque aspect of the movie - his inhuman appearance and mannerisms, as well as his narration from within a nightmarish realization of Las Vegas, is enough to turn viewers away from the movie entirely. 

Elvis is also a tonal mess - it tries to tackle nearly every moment in his life, from his introduction to music to his family life to his addiction, but doesn't give any topic a single moment to breathe until the momentum slows in the last five minutes. It delivers a very romantic image of Elvis's existence, casually jumping over the questionable power dynamics between Priscilla and himself, showing a melodramatic vision of addiction, and delivering a very narrow view of race in music. 

Luhrmann's idea of tackling racial issues is by showing Elvis's respect for Black music, but he separates this from the reality that many Black artists were not thrilled with his success. While Luhrmann tries to center Black music as the origin of Elvis's fame, he sidelines what these artists actually had to say about Elvis. Black music exists as an entirely cultural cornerstone - one without proximity to any sociopolitical issues. Luhrmann completely forgets any meaning behind this music. Even when the movie gets overtly political, it always centers Elvis in the most unnuanced and insensitive way possible (for example, Austin Butler's face is superimposed over footage of the aftermath of Dr. King's murder). 

So what did Black artists of the time actually have to say about Elvis Presley? Of course, there is no universal answer. Writer Yohana Desta examined this in a recent article, and while a love of Elvis varied strongly between artists, every musician she covers seems to hold the common belief that his fame was due, at least in part, to his whiteness. That isn't to say that he didn't have magnetizing qualities in his performance, but so did Little Richard, Big Mama Thornton, B.B. King, Sister Rosetta Sharpe, and countless others. Elvis being white was why he reached a transcendent level of fame that none of them did, and his whiteness cannot be divorced from his music. 

However, Elvis's racial commentary stems entirely from the fact that Elvis is enthralled with Black music. Baz Luhrmann only portrays Elvis' whiteness in the context of it as a setback - he has a deep admiration for Black culture, and that gives him a disadvantage in front of white audiences. The movie never wants to admit that Elvis had an advantage as a white performer; it only wants to show his hardships as a performer with proximity to Black culture. As Noah Berlatsky puts it, "The movie doesn't want to talk about the advantages Elvis gets from his (physical) whiteness. It wants instead to talk about his tragic struggle to be true to his (spiritual) blackness."

The movie seems so focused on the fact that Elvis gained success because he was a great performer of classic blues and rock. The focus should be that Elvis gained success because he was a white performer of classic blues and rock. Because Elvis tries to cover everything without ever solidifying a voice for itself, it ends up being about nothing - maximalist and overstimulating but vapid and pointless.

OVERALL SCORE: 3/10

Elvis was released on June 24 and is currently streaming on HBO Max.