Elvis

 

Every time I see a Baz Luhrman production, I expect it to have a certain cinematography slick sparkle about it.  It’s in the costuming, the hairstyles, the background colors, the set designs, a sort of surrealistic super reality.  Elvis doesn’t disappoint, in fact, I think it’s a borderline overachiever of the year, but hoo buddy, it captures “The King” from the Sun Records beginnings to the Las Vegas residency years with pinpoint accuracy. 

The soft and slimy underbelly is Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) who provides the narration and appears to be the stalwart friend to an impressionable and naive Elvis (Austin Butler).  He’s one nasty piece of work and Hanks does a stellar job of reaching down to the bottom of Parker’s cold and calculating heart to keep his “golden calf” from getting out of the corral.

Hopefully, Mr. Butler is more than a “one hit wonder”.  It’s an amazing performance, the music is classic, the costuming, hair and make-up is dead-on, and if you close your eyes, you’d swear that the King still lives.  Rating:  It’s one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and go cats go, and in the words of Carl Perkins…don’t you step on my blue suede shoes.