{"id":24917,"date":"2022-06-23T00:26:12","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T07:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=24917"},"modified":"2022-06-23T00:26:12","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T07:26:12","slug":"elvis-sounds-hollow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=24917","title":{"rendered":"ELVIS Sounds Hollow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 159 minutes <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This film from Warner Bros. opens at cinemas on Friday, June 24th.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elvis Presley stands as one of the most iconic musical performers ever, ruling the charts in the late 1950s and selling so many records that he remains one of the highest selling solo artists in history. His high-energy shows and hip-swinging on-stage antics titillated some and enraged others, adding to his fame. Talented Moulin Rouge<\/em> director Baz Luhrmann is another figure known for his flashy style and ability to deliver grand spectacle. While this director would seem like an appropriate figure to tell this story, it\u2019s the wrong approach for the new biopic Elvis<\/em> and doesn\u2019t deliver the goods. It is eye-popping and slick, but hollow to the core and lacking any authentic insight into the figure or his unusual life.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The story is narrated from the point-of-view of the star\u2019s\nantagonist, eccentric manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). While operating a\ntraveling circus in the southern US, he witnesses an early performance by\nyoungster Elvis Presley (Austin Butler). After seeing the reaction of female\nfans, Parker becomes determined to sign the artist, manage his career and cash\nin. It\u2019s a meteoric rise to the top for the pair, but as the years pass\ntroubles arise in their relationship. Parker has a few secrets and, as Elvis\nmoves from project to project, the artist starts feeling manipulated by his\ncontrolling manager.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the most hyperactive features in recent\nmemory. The film veers from one story in Elvis\u2019 life to another in mere\nmoments, buffered by glittering jewels, lights and spinning cameras with overly\nlengthy transitions between scenes. Early on, the movie feels like a montage,\nwith Parker\u2019s narration explaining what is occurring, followed by a line or two\nbefore moving to another event. Naturally, it\u2019s hard to dig deeper into the\nindividuals involved using this approach. Butler does a nice job at embodying\nElvis, but interactions with Parker are presented in such an over-the-top\nmanner that some of it is snicker-worthy. Hanks is plastered under make-up and\npadding, and there are literally shots of the supervisor peering from behind\nshow curtains with a menacing grin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Everything about the movie is aggrandized, adding falseness\nto the proceedings. Those familiar with Elvis Presley will know that the artist\nhad a serious prescription drug problem and got into plenty of personal\nscandals, as well as some odd exchanges over the course of his lifetime\n(including a plea to President Richard Nixon to let him join the FBI as a Drug Enforcement\nAgent shortly after beginning his Las Vegas residency). These bizarre acts are\nlargely ignored in the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What could have been an interesting expose into an artist\ntrying to maintain a famous public persona while struggling with addiction and\nother personal issues is largely ignored. Instead, Elvis is exclusively\nportrayed as a sweet-natured kid who really, really loved his mamma. By the\nend, he transforms into a man whose suffering comes exclusively from his\nsinister manager. Parker was certainly a crook who did exploit his star. But\nagain, it\u2019s all delivered in an exaggerated manner that lacks authenticity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few things in the film that do work. The pacing\ndoes slow down during the lead\u2019s preparations for what would later become known\nas the \u201cComeback Special\u201d and interesting drama is generated from how this show\nwas put together. When Parker does talk business and his own methods for hyping\nthe musician, some of his pitches (like selling both Elvis buttons for fans and\nhaters in order to monopolize the market) are shrewd and clever. And some of\nthe onstage performances are actually energized by the quick cutting. When\nElvis performs late in the film, footage and sound from the artists who\ninspired him, as well as earlier performances from his youth are combined to\ninteresting effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However, for the most part, this biopic feels phony. A major artist with a huge public personality doesn\u2019t benefit from an even larger-than-life onscreen portrayal. The rapid editing becomes tiresome and the screenplay doesn\u2019t present an intimate enough picture of the artist or how he truly felt about the trials and tribulations of stardom. Elvis<\/em> looks great, but is otherwise a disappointing cacophony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 159 minutes This film from Warner Bros. opens at cinemas on Friday, June 24th. Elvis Presley stands as one of the most iconic musical performers ever, ruling the charts in the late 1950s and selling so many records that he remains one of the highest selling solo artists in history. His high-energy shows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[209,2052,2789,4631,6251,6884,6889,6890,6891,6892,14429,23015,23031],"class_list":["post-24917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-209","tag-austin-butler","tag-biopic","tag-colonel-tom-parker","tag-drama","tag-elvis","tag-elvis-film-review","tag-elvis-movie-review","tag-elvis-presley","tag-elvis-review","tag-musical","tag-tom-hanks","tag-tom-parker"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}