If Austin Butler doesn’t win the Best Actor Oscar I’ll eat my hat!
Elvis
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
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If Austin Butler doesn’t win the Best Actor Oscar I’ll eat my hat!
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Saw it last night – yes he was phenomenal and so too Tom Hanks. I thought the film was good but could have been better – wasn’t a fan of the collage effects that were deployed but really liked the early Memphis scenes with BB King and Littlle Richard.
I don’t think I need to put ‘spoilers’ here, do I? I think we all know what happens!
With it be ing Baz Luhrmann, I expected it being larger than life and very stylised, but it quite restrained in that respect. It also didn’t fall into the trap that most music biopics did, by putting events out of order, sticking a song in the wrong place, making stuff up, etc. Well, nothing obvious in that respect either, certainly up to the last 20 minutes. It glossed over a load of stuff, but there’s only so much you can show in a couple of hours or so (cough…she was only 14…cough).
But yes, the two leads, especially Butler, we’re phenomenal. The bit that took the performance to the next level for me was the first scene at the International. That’s where he stopped playing Elvis and was Elvis. If Remi Malek won for playing Freddie Mercury, Austin Butler is a shoe-in.
Aw, I’m quite disappointed it isn’t “larger than life” like Baz’s normal approach. I love most of his films for that reason, and I was underwhelmed with Australia where he went slightly more realistic and muted.
I hadn’t realised this is now out so will need to go and see it!
I was as underwhelmed as it’s possible to be after seeing Australia. I might just have to see this if it’s merely a “life size” Luhrmann pic.
Was going to see it today, unfortunately covid has finally caught up with me, so maybe next week. The trailer looked excellent so I’m looking forward to this.
Bad luck Hubes. No symptoms I hope.
Just a bad flu/cold luckily. Just tested, still positive alas. Hey ho.
Thanks.
Not seen the movie yet but sems to be a lot of criticism about the way Nixon-loving EP is shoehorned into ML King’s funeral and generally treated like he was some early instigator of BLM.
Any other AWers read Mick Farren’s biog of the Colonel? Well worth tracking down if you’ve not
Any mention of who shines EP’s shoes in that?
It just shows them reacting to MLK’s death on the TV. It also shows that he had black friends as a kid and he hangs out in a club to emphasise that he was influenced by black music, but it’s really not that bad.
I’ve just read a sneering piece from the Guardian about ‘how true’ the film is. Yes, loads of stuff is glossed over (it’s a 2 hour film, not a mini-series), and yes, there are some things that are there for dramatic purposes (it’s a film, not a documentary), but every time a biopic comes out it’s an easy piece for a journalist to sneer at the ‘inaccuracies’. I think this custom probably started with Braveheart!
But, by and large, this film is as close to the documented story of the artist as any music biopic I can remember seeing, and any improvements would be to add more things, rather than change what was in there. The Guardian piece, for example, highlights that the meeting Elvis had with the 68 TV execs took place in an office, rather than in the O of the Hollywood sign. Really, is that sort of ‘inaccuracy’ really worth the ink?!
The Peter Bradshaw review wasn’t great but Mark Kermode gave it a glowing 5 star review and I know with which reviewer I am more likely to agree.
Which one?
Mr Kermode – I usually like what he likes.
More or less agree, Bradshaw annoys me
I’m waiting for Now Did This to arrive to find out their verdict, but Mark Kermode has never hidden his affection for Rock ‘n’ Roll (the 50s variety – the real deal – not the glib phrase), so it’s unlikely I won’t be going to see it next week.
Hope it’s alright.
Just back from seeing this and I loved it. It’s unafraid to show the tragedy of a trailblazing early career slowly blanding out into Vegas kitsch (Baz loves his tragedies, and loves the underbelly of showbiz), but running through it all is an infectious energy and an obvious love and understanding of the mojo driving the man.
It’s also unafraid of a bit exaggerated and OTT with its musical performances. I think it needs that: a reverential approach would have been too boring. But here there is a constant, pumping soundtrack which segues from Elvis’ stage performances into hip-hop montages and stuff like that. The “That’s Alright Mama” scene is a fantastic example (I was going to describe it but I don’t want to spoil it). It’s a very good representation of the kind of fizz and energy he must have generated in his heyday. I got goosebumps at several moments.
Is this in it?
It ought to be.
Wow. I’ve only just found out that final performance scene in the film (won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it) was not original footage of the man (as I assumed it was, and as the use of jumpy, blurry film in that scene makes it look like) but a recreation. That was incredibly well done.
I saw this last night & thought it was cracking. It’s brash & OTT but if it was done as a straight forward biopic it would need to be 10 hours long. The style of it meant they could compress the story yet still get it told with huge dollops of energy.
Wholly agree that Austin Butler needs to win every award going for this, he captured that aura of Elvis perfectly. It’s not often you see a Tom Hanks film & him not be the best thing in it! A shout out for Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla too, she was fantastic!
@Paul Wad, I also read the sneering Guardian article (amongst many others) talking about the inaccuracies of the film & think they are widely off the mark. Most of them fall strictly under the ‘poetic license’ umbrella for me & do not hamper the story in any way.
My only gripe* on this front was the sleeve for the first Sun Records release being incorrect (it had the logo on as opposed to being in a plain brown one). As my wife rightly pointed out, only nobbers like me would pick up on something like that anyway! ha 🙂
*twas not really a gripe, but some of the ‘inaccuracies’ people have sneered at are along these lines so really not a big deal!
Glad you enjoyed it. I think you have also described my own feelings quite accurately as well.
There will be loads of different bits different people will have wanted to be expanded, so as you say he has done a great job of condensing it all. Personally I would have liked to see more of the studio scenes at Sun, finding his voice and getting into the groove for That’s Alright Mama, but I realise they can’t show everything.
I liked it, but not as much as I expected or hoped. The main problem for me was having it narrated by Tom Parker. For a start, why create an extra layer between the viewer and the best performance of the year, and secondly, if you’re going to do that, at least offer some extra insight or… *something* that justifies the decision. Instead I went into the film thinking that Tom Parker was a terrible crook and came out of it feeling exactly the same. Extra dimensions there are none. It was a feeling magnified by Hanks’s moustache-twirling performance which I found a bit mannered and obvious.
Austin Butler, though. Wow. By rights, they should have torn up the script and started again, telling the story purely from his POV and giving Hanks a strong supporting character.
An interesting point. I think Baz definitely wanted to use the same “flawed character revisiting the past and relating a tragic story of someone’s rise, fall and death” trope that drove Moulin Rouge and Gatsby, which is fair enough since it is a nice framing device. But yes, it was odd to see someone shine brighter than Tom Hanks on screen.