The movie adds face-fattening makeup and a Dutch accent stolen from “Austin Powers in Goldmember” to make the character even more repulsive. Come to think of it, Parker himself probably did a lot to helm that stereotype. Every stereotype about the greedy, manipulative, criminal manager is on full display with Parker. Really, all three parts of that name should be in quotation marks with what a phony this guy is. The story is told from the point of view of Elvis’s manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). His fame has been well-established at this point, and if he were thinking more clearly, he couldn’t possibly mean what he’s saying, but still, it’s a powerful reminder that everyone thinks like this sometimes. The closest thing I’d say this movie has to an “insight” about Elvis is a scene where he confesses that he fears that he won’t be remembered. Rise and fall, rise and fall, tragic end. We follow Elvis (Austin Butler) from his well-meaning early days on the carnival circuit to a successful tour where he picks up some bad habits to superstardom and cockiness to a humbling decline to a roaring comeback to misplaced complacency to the utter destruction of his life. As it is, we have to settle for Luhrmann simply creating this lengthy tribute to Elvis.Īll the expected pieces of the music biopic are covered here. It’s a shame that Elvis and Luhrmann were professionals in different eras, because one wonders what they could have created if they had worked together. Elvis, or at least his onstage persona, was all about exploiting rebelliousness and hedonism, and looking like the most ambitious kind of eyesore in the process. The filmmaker is known for a garish visual style that, while not “ugly” per se (and in fact can be quite beautiful if seen with the right eyes), always screams “excessive.” He captured the spirit of flashy rebelliousness in the party scenes in “The Great Gatsby” in 2013 and turned the “Moulin Rouge!” into a paradise of hedonism in 2001. A biopic of Elvis Presley is an absolutely perfect fit for director Baz Luhrmann.
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