Herewith an amusingly mixed, damning-with-faint-praise review of Elvis, posted yesterday by Presley biographer and HE’s former Entertainment Weekly colleague at Pat H. Broeske:
“Yours Truly finally caught up with the new Elvis film, and it was definitely worth the price of admission! Serious eye candy!” HE comment: What does that mean, “serious eye candy”? Is there an un-serious form of eye candy…a less-than-fully-committed kind?
“Now, speaking as an Elvis biographer (1997’s ‘Down at the End of Lonely Street,’ co-written with Peter Harry Brown), this screen rendition is a very, very authorized take on Elvis. There is absolutely nothing in this movie that can upset the powers-that-be within the Elvis industry/Graceland.
“But if it’s a sanitized account of the King and his career — and that’s the only way this movie was going to get access to all that Elvis music, etc. — it’s also fabulously produced and earnestly performed.
“[Director] Baz Luhrmann (of the overwrought Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby) takes oodles of creative license as he charts Presley’s rise, his 1960s stagnancy, his phenomenal 1968 TV special (one of the greatest showbiz comebacks ever), and his Vegas years.
“It all happens in flamboyant, sometimes mind-boggling fashion (a Luhrmann trademark), with Austin Butler as Elvis and Tom Hanks as manager Col. Tom Parker.
“Along the way the film dodges minefields, as in significant people and events in the superstar’s life. Several women with whom he was seriously involved, who aren’t popular with certain members of the Presley clan, don’t warrant so much as a howdy-do. And except for meeting the beautiful young Priscilla in Germany, Elvis’s military time gets short shrift while in real life, that’s when he seriously started popping pills.
“Also, the film downplays the Memphis Mafia — and the fact that several of its members betrayed Elvis with a hurtful tell-all, published just weeks prior to his death.
“Nor does Elvis get into E’s weight-related issues (there’s not even a snippet of him scarfing down one of those peanut butter and fried banana sandwiches). His use/abuse of prescription meds is also minimized. And so on.
“But if this isn’t a warts-and-all screen bio, it does hit the high notes of E’s career, and at the end of the day (and by the time the multitudinous credits have rolled), it serves to remind filmgoers of what made Elvis so special. It also introduces younger viewers to those qualities. And it’s certainly a showcase for Luhrmann’s hyperventilating screen style.
“Come Oscar time, this film will be in contention for numerous technical categories. and possibly for Hanks’s performance.” [HE: No niomination for Butler?] But in the meantime with everyone all shook up, Elvis will continue to entice.”