Elvis

Elvis is currently available on HBO Max, bringing with it an explosion of the King's music and the excess of an enormous Baz Luhrmann film.

Many aspects of Elvis’ life are left out in favor of a more prismatic collage, which is acceptable but sometimes feels like an excuse to display all the legendary Elvis costumes and songs. It’s undeniable that Elvis is an engaging film, complete with all the sparkle and glamour you’d anticipate from a Presley biography, but it leans more toward being a tribute to director Baz Luhrmann’s visual aesthetic than to the King. I advise going into the movie knowing that, for better or worse, the movie is a blur because of how chaotic Elvis Presley’s life was.

Elvis is finally streaming on HBO Max as fans pour into the service to see Baz Luhrmann's interesting biopic. Warner Bros. Discovery announced the news on ...

"The story delves into the complex dynamic between Presley and Parker spanning over 20 years, from Presley's rise to fame to his unprecedented stardom, against the backdrop of the evolving cultural landscape and loss of innocence in America. It's really about, for me, America in the 50s and the 60s and the 70s," Luhrmann shared. "And if you want to talk about America in the 50s and 60s and the 70s at the center of culture, for the good, the bad, and the ugly, is a figure [like] Elvis Presley." In the earlier moments of the summer, Elvis [managed to hold off](https://comicbook.com/movies/news/elvis-beats-top-gun-maverick-top-spot-at-weekend-box-office/) Top Gun: Maverick for top spot at the box office during its debut. The reviews of the film on Rotten Tomatoes praise Butler's performance and with this director, you can [expect some beautifully composed shots](https://comicbook.com/movies/news/hugh-jackman-reviews-elvis/). [Elvis](/category/elvis-noncomicmovie/) [is finally streaming](https://comicbook.com/movies/news/elvis-streaming-premiere-date-hbo-max/) on [HBO Max](/category/hbo-max/) as fans pour into the service to see Baz Luhrmann's interesting biopic.

Austin Butler as Elvis Presley, in a pink suit holding a guitar. Austin Butler's Elvis Presley is better than any impersonator I've seen. Warner Bros.

At times it does feel like an excuse to showcase all the iconic Elvis costumes and songs, which is understandable -- it's largely why audiences will show up -- but there's so much of Elvis' story missed out in favor of a more prismatic collage. While the prosthetics do most of the heavy lifting, an inconsistent accent and caricature presence make it hard to suspend disbelief that we're looking at anyone other than Tom Hanks in a fake nose. But if you can get past the dizziness and distraction of Luhrmann's more outlandish choices, there really is a lot to love about the film.

Roxana Hadadi is a TV critic who also writes about film and pop culture, with the closed captions on and motion smoothing off. Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros.

And the kiss-off Elvis is never able to give Parker is just as important to this redemptive effort as the kisses he’s forced to provide. As Presley punches his fist in the air to their tempo, it’s a rare moment in Elvis when he’s actually in control — and Luhrmann is swift in undercutting it with a reminder that this triumph will not last. Elvis doesn’t go all the way into that period of Presley’s life; it’s too enamored with its subject to consider the man’s mistakes and missteps or make space for the individual agency that caused them. That scene cuts back and forth between Satine and the Duke in a bedroom, Christian singing “Come What May,” and other Moulin Rouge performers singing and dancing a tango version of the Police’s “Roxanne” with a hard, sexualized edge. After Presley puts on that fantastic first show at the International — one in which both he and the performers he assembled are doing the absolute most and best — it’s not Priscilla who comes out to stand by his side. Elvis, meanwhile, stays in one location, the theater of the International Hotel, and one song soundtracks the sequence: Presley’s “That’s All Right.” Luhrmann divides his attention between Presley, who is unleashing that gigantic voice and strutting around; his wife, Priscilla (Olivia DeJonge), proudly watching him from the audience; and Parker, seated with the owners of the International and signing Presley, without his knowledge, to a five-year exclusivity contract with the hotel as a means of covering the Colonel’s gambling debts. Army stint, the dozens of films in which he starred, co-starred, or cameoed — Parker engineers it all, and it’s a thrill when Elvis finally allows the singer to strike back by advocating for his own music and his own preferences. The scene that follows in Elvis plays like a remix of another late-film confrontation Luhrmann staged: “El Tango de Roxanne,” from Moulin Rouge!, in which Kidman’s Satine is basically sold to the tempestuous Duke (Richard Roxburgh) for a night, and her lover, Christian (Ewan McGregor), stews in a mixture of anger and grief, knowing what she is being forced to do. and Elvis make a complementary pair; they argue that the greatest danger to an artist and their art is the loss of bodily autonomy and the sacrifice of self. Here, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) is the sole culprit behind Elvis’s financial instability, drug addiction, fracturing family, and increasing irrelevance in the 1970s, and the film’s boundaries around Parker as a villain and Elvis as a hero are rigid and unmovable. Butler adds an edge of sly cunning and a raw vulnerability as Presley refuses Parker’s demands to don a bright-red cardigan to sing “Here Comes Santa Claus,” instead performing the Martin Luther King Jr.–inspired “If I Can Dream” in a creamy-white suit. [Glitter](https://www.vulture.com/2021/09/the-never-ending-story-of-glitter-20-years-on.html) to [The Runaways](https://www.vulture.com/2010/01/kristin_stewart_runaways_sunda.html) have positioned this as a particularly female problem, locking women into a restricted identity and spiraling them into despair.

This week's slate of new movies to watch at home is led by Elvis, the audaciously over-the-top Elvis Presley biopic by none other than Baz Luhrmann.

Brown (Hotel Artemis) as Trinitie and Lee-Curtis Childs, the first lady and pastor of a Southern Baptist megachurch. This is an all-purpose spoof, with specific nods to older, American, mostly unrelated films like Schoenbrun suggests that within that range of collective expression, people can decide who and what they want to be. As she begins to notice inexplicable and sinister changes within herself, Casey is forced to confront the possibility of whether all of this is in her head. Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 musical biopic chronicles the life of American music icon Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) from his childhood singing in a small church choir to his stadium-packing performance as a rock legend. While you’re in the mood for that, why not consider

Baz Luhrmann's Elvis has been a huge hit with most audiences, but some fans have taken to Reddit to voice their unpopular opinion about the biopic.

[More_Acanthisitta_73](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/vjuunq/comment/ifedh6d/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) thinks it was too long and "poorly orchestrated. [Huntday4](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/wsoq9k/elvis_movie_is_just_too_weird/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) was made very "uncomfortable" by the behavior of the young women from the very first performance scene. [Paultheschmoop](https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/vjd54g/comment/idv19h0/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) "could’ve done without the 2 or 3 random Elvis remixes with rap verses that completely took me out of the movie." [ soundtrack features a lot of Elvis songs](https://screenrant.com/elvis-movie-best-songs-ranked/), but it also showcases new talent with original songs as well as remixes and collaborations with The King's material. Elvis was as fallible as any one of his fans, and by no means a perfect person. While there can be no doubt Hanks prepared for his role with all the diligence of previous performances, he didn't completely disappear into the role and was seen as more of a distraction than anything else. Most fans feel that with his heavy makeup and prosthetics, as well as his accent of dubious Eastern European origin, Tom Hanks was the weakest part of Elvis. [Typical_Ranger_1684](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/w0tm3w/the_elvis_film_is_awful/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) thinks that aside from being "inaccurate it tries to present Elvis as someone that did stuff about social issues like civil rights when he never did which is just disrespectful." [Darkobscurities](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/w0tm3w/comment/ilj739b/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) thought the movie "took inaccuracy and creative liberties to an extreme. [things about Elvis's life the movie didn't show](https://screenrant.com/things-about-elvis-presleys-life-movie-not-shown-baz-luhrmann/), such as his meeting with President Nixon, would have pulled attention away from more important aspects that serviced the plot. Also, it should be noted that [many details of Elvis's life](https://screenrant.com/elvis-details-hardcore-fans-noticed/) were well-researched, and even if the movie's aesthetic wasn't universally liked, Austin Butler's powerful central performance across three decades can also be attributed for the movie's overall higher score. Audiences have praised the musical biopic for its depiction of Elvis Presley's fame, from his early Memphis days on Beale Street to his troubled residency in Las Vegas, anchored by an intense and authentic performance by Austin Butler and a hypnotic attention to detail.

Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe have been touring together and, at an Anaheim stop, took the occasion to offer several duets.

With the latest album, he has two songs that are the kind of rave-ups he hasn’t written in decades — “Magnificent Hurt” and “Farewell OK” — which seem more likely to endure in his sets in years to come than some of his other, less live-friendly 21st century material has. Costello did his extra bit to make it a more Lowe-centric night than normal by opening his part of the show with his never-recorded, 120-mph reading of the other singer’s “Heart of the City,” as he occasionally has in the past, if never previously on this tour. It served as a turquoise mood-setter for “Almost Blue,” a somber classic that hasn’t gotten much airing lately amid his mostly frenetic shows with the Imposters, but which maybe needed exactly that setup for a RBI. Of all the songs from that thwarted show Costello has introduced in his sets over the years, this may be the one that best stands alone without any need of a we-join-this-story-in-progress stage intro. Anyway, theirs remains a pairing that keeps on working over the years, as Lowe has a world-class pickup band at the ready when he needs one, and one that can veer between his power-pop and country-rock sides with no sign of stretching. On that last ballad, the guest singer offered far different phrasing than Costello’s traditional reading, taking out the faint sense of vituperation and, in his gentler tones, sounding as if he fully emphasized with why the heroine put up with having her hands shmushed into a cake.

Ever since fans got to see Austin Butler take on the titular role of the legendary singer Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's “Elvis,” they've been dying to stream ...