Hi! You’re reading an entry in the Jscars 2022, a series on my favorite movies of the year 2022. Read the previous entries here:
All Quiet on the Western Front
“I didn’t kill Elvis. YOU killed Elvis.”
You know what sucks? Capitalism. This isn’t me saying any other economic system is better, more so that the one we’re living in right now is just the least bad one. It’s incredibly easy for an individual, no matter how talented or once in a lifetime they are, to be chewed up and spat out by the system, used for every little ounce of profitability until they’re just a husk of what they once were. And there’s possibly no area where this is more clear than in show business. It can come in the form of corrupt individuals, the needs of an audience being too demanding, or just the overall grind of the lifestyle becoming too much. Such is the story told in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.
First of all, let me address the obvious. This is an incredibly over the top, cartoonish movie with all the subtlety and nuance of, well, Tom Hanks in a fat suit doing a bizarre accent. I do not blame anyone for thinking this is a textbook case of style over substance. But I really do think there’s more to it than that. Elvis Presley was a man who was larger than life. His story, lifestyle and persona exhibited the kind of energy that most people will never encounter in person, let alone actually have. He was untouchable. And the style of the movie fits that perfectly. And yet despite the fact that he was borderline more than human, in the end he fell victim to the same machine that so many before and since him have succumbed to. Elvis Presley in real life may be a slightly more complicated person, but in the world of the movie it is clear. This is a golden figure that the world ultimately failed.
Another thing I want to talk about that I touched on in the last paragraph is Tom Hanks’ portrayal of Colonel Tom Parker. Yes this is getting its own paragraph. Ever since the first trailer for the movie people have been mocking the decisions made by Hanks in his portrayal, and for a while I was right there with them. But frankly, I think it goes perfectly with the over the top atmosphere the whole movie creates around Elvis. If Elvis is going to act as the superhero of sorts for the story, then he needs a supervillain. Tom Hanks’ Parker mirrors Austin Butler’s Elvis almost perfectly, and I would go so far as to say that some elements of the performance such as the accent at times sounding hokey to say the least is fully on purpose, pitting him as a man with nothing genuine about him as opposed to the pure-heartedness of Presley. Come at me.
But really, even if it wasn’t for the “smarter” elements of the story, the movie is just straight up fun. Not in a blockbuster “”turn your brain off” kind of way, but in a way in which the style and charisma oozing off the entire way through makes it so you almost can’t help yourself from having a good time while watching. Considering previous movies directed by Baz Luhrmann this didn’t come off as a shock to me, I was surprised at the extent to which it ended up being true. The visual flourishes added to highlight different time periods or events in the life of Elvis, the portrayals of all the key players, just the energy coursing through the whole thing. This point may not be particularly analytical or intelligent sounding, but sometimes it just doesn’t matter. There’s a saying in show business about somebody just having “It” and how it’s sometimes hard to define. Elvis Presley certainly had It. And I would say this movie certainly does as well.