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Watched HBO's Elvis over the course of the last two nights. (Spoilers ahead.)
I'll start by simply saying that it wasn't what I was expecting. Or hoping for. I was hoping for a revealing, period-accurate biopic. The first half of the movie is more like a continuous montage of 50's kitsch mixed with modern music and aesthetics (e.g. crazy saturated film stock.) Basically, an hour long VH1 music video. And Tom Hanks in Fat Bastard makeup saying "Snow Business" over and over and over (and over and over and over) again as if it were the single most clever thing anyone had ever said. It's as endearing as it sounds.
I suppose the music is good on its own terms, but if you're a music geek who went in looking for an Elvis biopic, the deviation from authenticity is often grating. The acting is... fine... but the screenplay is nearly non-existent for the first half. Then there's a period of the movie which lasts maybe 8 or 9 days (I lost count) where Elvis films a Christmas special andFat Bastard Colonel Parker tells him to play Santa Claus Is Coming to Town over and over and over (and over and over and over.) While they debate the merits of this one Christmas carol, a president is shot, Americans embrace new values, glaciers fall into oceans, galaxies form. And then Elvis does not play Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.
Then, very briefly, there is a plot.
The second half of the movie - despite its continuing efforts to have almost no substantial dialog whatsoever - does get more interesting by virtue of the conflicts of interest that arise. Elvis starts to fall apart in Vegas, and just as the film gathers some steam... Well, the rest is (tragic) history.
Here the film caught me off guard by giving me maybe a little too much of what I wanted - especially on the same night I'd just heard about JB's passing. It cuts to real footage of Elvis' fans, and of Elvis himself, and finally of one of his performances shortly before his death. He looks so terrible - hardly recognizable. And then he sings and it's enormous, angelic, larger than life. By this point, I'd softened on the movie some, but it almost felt like cheating: the frequent mediocrity of the film that precedes this footage just makes Elvis himself hit you that much harder. (Being a "man of a certain age", footage of the '70s has a strange, intimate familiarity to me, which makes me an even easier target.) Like @JiveTurkey (who may or may not give a s*** about Elvis) has been saying these past couple of days: onion sandwich.
On balance I wouldn't know how to judge. I think I mostly hated the movie itself LOL. But by the time it was over I was glad I'd watched it, because it was so affecting.
I'll start by simply saying that it wasn't what I was expecting. Or hoping for. I was hoping for a revealing, period-accurate biopic. The first half of the movie is more like a continuous montage of 50's kitsch mixed with modern music and aesthetics (e.g. crazy saturated film stock.) Basically, an hour long VH1 music video. And Tom Hanks in Fat Bastard makeup saying "Snow Business" over and over and over (and over and over and over) again as if it were the single most clever thing anyone had ever said. It's as endearing as it sounds.
I suppose the music is good on its own terms, but if you're a music geek who went in looking for an Elvis biopic, the deviation from authenticity is often grating. The acting is... fine... but the screenplay is nearly non-existent for the first half. Then there's a period of the movie which lasts maybe 8 or 9 days (I lost count) where Elvis films a Christmas special and
Then, very briefly, there is a plot.
The second half of the movie - despite its continuing efforts to have almost no substantial dialog whatsoever - does get more interesting by virtue of the conflicts of interest that arise. Elvis starts to fall apart in Vegas, and just as the film gathers some steam... Well, the rest is (tragic) history.
Here the film caught me off guard by giving me maybe a little too much of what I wanted - especially on the same night I'd just heard about JB's passing. It cuts to real footage of Elvis' fans, and of Elvis himself, and finally of one of his performances shortly before his death. He looks so terrible - hardly recognizable. And then he sings and it's enormous, angelic, larger than life. By this point, I'd softened on the movie some, but it almost felt like cheating: the frequent mediocrity of the film that precedes this footage just makes Elvis himself hit you that much harder. (Being a "man of a certain age", footage of the '70s has a strange, intimate familiarity to me, which makes me an even easier target.) Like @JiveTurkey (who may or may not give a s*** about Elvis) has been saying these past couple of days: onion sandwich.
On balance I wouldn't know how to judge. I think I mostly hated the movie itself LOL. But by the time it was over I was glad I'd watched it, because it was so affecting.
