Baz Luhrmann's Elvis Presly biopic premiered today at the Cannes Film Festival (to a ten-minute standing ovation) and the critics started rolling in. Sounds like Elvis is really a Baz Luhrmann movie, which is a very good or a very bad thing depending on how much you enjoy his previous work.
Owen Gleiberman of Variety called Elvis a "sparkling, delirious, mischievously energized, compulsively watchable, two-hour, 39-minute fever dream, a brilliant reel of a movie that turns the Elvis saga we all carry around in our heads into a biopic sumptuously staged like a pop opera.
Reviews:- Check out this post elvis reviews praise the dazzling excess of baz luhrmanns movies following cannes premiere.
David Rooney of THR said, “What you think of Baz Luhrmann's Elvis will largely depend on what you think of Baz Luhrmann's brash and brilliant maximalism. Just the hyper-caffeinated establishment section, even before Austin Butler's locomotive hips start doing their jerky thing as Elvis Presley takes the stage to perform "Heartbreak Hotel" in a rockabilly-chic pink suit, you leaves stunned with his frantic breath. . flamboyant colors, split-screen, retro graphics, and more edits per scene than the human eye can count. Add the layered, jaw-dropping sound design and it's Baz multiplied by a bazillion.
Deadline's Pete Hammond praised Austin Butler's performance as Elvis in his review, saying he was "the perfect fit" for the iconic musician both "visually and vocally".
Hammond added that "Butler has a thrilling hit, particularly in the first half of the film, with an authentic pacing that makes us wonder what heights Elvis might have reached had he not succumbed to the dark side of his own fame. ." As for Tom Hanks' performance as Colonel Parker, Hammond says the actor "comes out and manages to solve the Parker riddle, even if his authentic accent can be a bit unnerving for fans."
Tom Hanks' performance appears to be divisive, as Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times said his work on Elvis is "hammy, shrill and unmodulated in the extreme, accomplished with a combination of fat suit, prosthetic double chin and exaggerated accent. . this makes Colin Farrell's Penguin and Stellan Skarsgard's Baron Von Harkonnen completely overpowered.
IndieWire's David Ehrlich was certainly not a fan of the film's over-the-top style. "Luhrmann is perhaps one of the most irrepressible maximalists cinema has ever known, and his new opus is perhaps the most visually anarchic Hollywood film since Wachowski's 2008 'Speed Racer'," Ehrlich said. “But it's hard to find even ironic pleasure in something so lofty in your own supply; something much less interested in how its namesake broke the rules than how its director does it, and something relentlessly unable to find meaningful overlap between the two.
For a 159 minute film, it seems like Elvis doesn't spend much time sitting down. "Never a narrator who dwells too long on a scene, Luhrmann steers his film like a mysterious train that could derail at any moment," writes IGN's Jim Vejvoda. "Fortunately, this is not the case, but this breakneck speed does not leave much time to take emotional stock of certain major events, such as the death of Elvis' beloved mother, Gladys (a wistful Helen Thomson We are witnessing the aftermath of his death, but for the worst tragedy in Elvis' life, his actual demise is dealt with in as much time as a commercial break."
