Elvis (2022)......reminded me of when I took in a multiplex viewing of Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical extravaganza "Moulin Rouge"......
The first 15 minutes of the film, where Baz-mania ran rampant until settling down to a low roar, sent dozens of people walking out of the theater. Obviously, they feared the entire film was going to stay at the same frenzied pitch......
'Elvis' makes good on that dreaded idea that sent them fleeing. Not only does it maintain a furiously paced riot of visual and sound imagery, it keeps it up for 160 minutes.
The overall effect? Like watching a 2 hour and 40 minute montage sequence......a hyper ADD afflicted trailer for an even longer Elvis movie that's coming soon.......
Truly an exhausting experience to get through and condensing the life of Elvis Presley into a cartoonish,, feverish Baz-O-Rama spectacle won't sit well with anyone used to traditional filmed biographies.......it's a saga of both performer and his American lifetime presented as if it's a "Viva Las Vegas" musical number...... an endless variety show can could only climax with the death of its star.
I'm already feeling worn out writing about this movie, so let's just go right to quick impressions.
Austin Butler (Elvis) As fine a re-creation as you could imagine, but as the film grinds on, you come to realize he's only a supporting player in his own story......because the character that really fascinates Baz Luhrmann is.....
Tom Hanks (Col. Tom Parker) So over-the-top and physically grotesque, he looks like he wandered in from a "Batman" movie......For better or worse, Hanks seizes control of the film whenever he's on view (and he's on view through just about all of it), a mad mixture of Svengali, Rasputin and a leftover Bond villain.
The rest of the cast......a forgettable, inconsequential collection of actors made up to look like waxwork figures popping up through Presley's life.
Every so often, Luhrmann slows down the non-top music video hoo-hah to let the actors enjoy some actual dialogue scenes together.....a breathing spell for both them and us the audience. And to its great credit, the film brutally dissects Parker as the ultimate carnival huckster who never saw Elvis as anything but a conduit to separate the rubes from their cash......leading to all the crappy quickie movies and the wounding roads not taken,,,, (such as co-starring with Barbra Streisand in "A Star Is Born" )
There's surely enough stuff on display here to make the film worth watching.......but know that it will test your tolerance and patience with Baz-mania to the very limits....2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2)
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