Elvis has Re-entered the Building

The 2022 biopic Elvis is not your run-of-the-mill biopic, which is a good thing: Elvis was not a run-of-the-mill person. Brought to the world by the unique and creative mind of Baz Luhrmann, Elvis soaks the audience in a mesmerizing 159-minute cinematic experience of frenzied conversations, slow interactions, vibrant colours, rhinestones, silence, singing, gyrations, self-doubt, disorientation, triumph, devastation, love, heartache, confusion, betrayal, introspection and extravagance.

Oh, the extravagance.

Elvis’s meteoric rise to superstardom, and the staggering wealth and materialistic indulgences that came with it, have naturally, over time, eclipsed the larger narrative of Elvis’s full life, including the rockier aspects of his upbringing, his struggle to find and hold onto himself, and the financial losses he suffered at the hands of his savvy, but manipulative, career-long manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Luhrmann has tasked himself with chronicling Elvis’s life from his birth to his demise, and he delivers remarkably well considering the mountain of material from Elvis’s rather dizzying life he must try to fit in.

The film is narrated by the conniving Parker, who is played by Tom Hanks in a departure from wholesome characters and heroes such as Mr. Rogers and Captain Sully—though, as Parker alludes to many times throughout the film, he has decided he is a hero for the discovery and development of Elvis. Hanks straddles a fine line between portraying a character vs. a caricature, and the caricature-like gestures and expressions from Hanks’ Parker work only because they exist in synergy with Luhrmann’s larger-than-life movie universe, and the over-the-top world Elvis created for himself. Though Parker was certainly the driving force behind Elvis’s incredible initial success and fame, his intentions become hazy early on, after Parker preys upon Elvis’s loss of sense of direction and self after his mother’s death, convincing the devastated 22-year-old that he, another parental figure, has the star’s best interests at heart. The film exhibits the slow, ever-tightening grip Parker keeps on Elvis through to the tragic end of the singer’s life, while Parker maintains dismissively in his narration that he ought only to be thanked for his services.

“I didn’t kill him,” Parker insists in a voiceover: “I made Elvis Presley.”

Elvis’s life was filled with chaos, and this is translated onto the screen by Luhrmann’s attention to detail, bursts of fast-paced editing and determination to touch upon multiple milestones, both celebratory and painful, across Elvis’s short 42 years of life. There are moments during the film that are so fraught with freneticism that it feels hard to catch a breath; these undoubtedly parallel how Elvis and his entourage felt as his star power rose, his responsibilities increased and his material possessions grew tenfold, including, of course, Graceland. Luhrmann captures the excitement, confusion and even discomfort in Elvis’s inner circle as everyone grappled to adjust to their new lives and their new roles, and as Elvis found himself increasingly trapped in a life of endless, back-to-back, impossibly high-energy performances from which he could not escape if he had any hope of not only maintaining his ostentatious lifestyle, but also of funding the lives of the many employees who depended upon him for their paycheques.

Austin Butler gives an incredible, career-defining performance as The King of Rock and Roll, disappearing seamlessly into the man who made rhinestone-adorned jumpsuits iconic. Butler provided his own vocals for Elvis’s early career years in the film and does so with astonishing accuracy. To learn to emulate an enormously famous and talented figure such as Elvis in a project released to the world was a feat no doubt nerve-racking for the actor to undertake, but his hard work and dedication has paid off. Physically, Butler captures with great success the legend’s famous (or infamous) gyrations and the subtleties of his facial expressions, including those soulful, almost mischievous eyes peering out from under those dozy lids. The young actor, who only turned 30 last year, uncannily replicates Elvis’s distinct speaking voice, Southern accent and all.

Butler commands attention anytime he is onscreen: as a small, lost, grief-stricken Elvis; as a famous singer losing control in moments of rage and desperation; as an increasingly lonely man addicted to pills; and everything in between. Butler so skillfully pulls off his impersonation that he has earned praise and support from Lisa Marie Presley as well as Priscilla Presley, who is arguably the one person who knew the nuances of Elvis’s mannerisms, flaws, pain, turmoil, joys, and inner workings better, perhaps, than Elvis himself.

Luhrmann takes some creative liberties in fictionalizing interactions and shuffling historical moments to fit the film’s narrative, and there are some scenes in the film that linger a bit too long, and some that are cut too short (longer sequences of Butler performing onstage would have been welcome). Nevertheless, overall, Luhrmann’s Elvis achieves what it set out to do: to show audiences as full a spectrum of The King’s turbulent, triumphant and heartbreaking life as is possible in 159 minutes, without caving to oversaturated melodrama or needless sensationalism.

Elvis’s life was dramatic, sensational and almost unbelievable all on its own, and audiences have finally received the appropriately frenetic, thoughtful, flashy, detailed, at times overwhelming film that is worthy of telling this chaotic rags-to-riches story not seen at such a scale before or since.