Elvis Review

Elvis is one of those movies that drives your desires -often secret and hidden- to be actors, singers, Hollywood stars, etc. When the lights go out of one of the most incredible shows in today's cinema , in my opinion, the brightness of the screen disappears and the music stops, feelings and emotions overwhelm you. In my case, the desire to jump on the screen and be part of such wonderful work took over me, and still haunts me.

Elvis is a tribute to the King of Rock who moves mountains. At the stature of such a great artist, to whom Austin Butler knew how to fill the shoes and get into the skin of the character, humanizing the star in a pure and transparent way. It wasn't Austin playing Elvis. It was Elvis taking over Austin with every move, with every smile, with every song. Butler's performance is simply perfect, the humanity that his interpretation brings makes this great idol fragile. It is another face of Elvis that we may not know, it is the truth that hides behind his addiction, behind his makeup and behind those colorful costumes, from the perspective of the great director Baz Luhrmann.

The film focuses on Elvis Presley's relationship with Tom Parker, played by the always magnificent Tom Hanks , who was his manager for 20 years. The film tells the story of how Elvis's life changes after meeting Parker, how he leads him to stardom, and at what cost. The film also explores moral, political and social issues, emphasizing how different historical events marked his personal life. At the same time that the personality of the artist peels off, a broken, lost and dangerous America is shown, not always according to the person of Elvis Presley.

One of the most interesting things is the walk through the different periods of the artist's life and how the historical context in which he developed changed his vision of fame, of life and even his way of speaking, something that Austin Butler handles perfectly, those different accents that mark the different stages of the king's life are an essential part of understanding the character.

Many criticize that the film leaves out important events in the life of Elvis Presley, but his life was full of relevant events, very difficult to condense in 2h40. However, the director did a fantastic job of choosing where to focus (and everything else to be honest): music as the main and sovereign element in Elvis's life, what it managed to make of him when it took over his body and could not but move in the way we all know. He had no choice but to let himself be carried away by the rhythm... and thus a star is born*.

Luhrmann has gifted us with similarly technically quirky films like Moulin Rouge (2001) and The Great Gatsby (2013) , but the way he presents Elvi 's is different. Although it is also marked by exuberance and hedonism, the director makes it clear that this is his great work.

Elvis is an ode to the life of this character, it is an ode to the Presley family, and mainly, it is an ode to the world of cinema, to the wonderful vehicle that pumps blood and passion from the screen to our hearts and vice versa. Elvis is pure love of art, the legacy that he left behind the acclaimed star, the love of his followers, the love of all those who participated in the film, and the love that is unleashed from us after seeing it. Elvis is pure love.