ELVIS may not receive a hunk of "Burning Love" at the box office but it won't be the fault of Baz Luhrmann's energetic directing style or Austin Butler's pitch- perfect performance.
Now I can finally know him as an actor instead of just referring to him as Vanessa Hudgen's ex.
At 2 hours and 39 minutes, it's unbelievable that this film has very little substance but it is crammed with style. If the production design wasn't amazing or costumes weren't so exquisite
Including repros courtesy of Miu Miu and Prada
and the music so feet-tapping, head-noddingly good that long runtime could have been an issue because my problem with Luhrmann's work is that it is too chock full. For someone who has a great legacy the reality is Luhrmann has only directed six feature films and it's like every time he gets a film he's afraid he'll never get to do another one so editing be damned. He's going to throw in the kitchen sink, the fridge, the washer. There's no throwing out the baby with the bath water. No -that's going in the film, too. His films (and even the short-lived Netflix series THE GET DOWN) can be too dizzying.
You don't need to have a working knowledge of Elvis Presley to enjoy his film. It's nice if you do (people on either side of me and my friend were big Elvis fans and they lapped this film up. They shed tears. They expressed regret at not getting able to see him perform). I don't think the film alone could have garnered that reaction if it wasn't for Butler's extraordinary performance. He was incredible. It's no wonder that when he found out Butler was going up for the role his former costar Denzel Washington contacted Luhrmann - of his own accord and without Butler's knowledge - and praised Butler.
Those who hate Elvis won't be swayed by this film. If anything they will hate that it glosses over every criticism that has loomed over his legacy (that he was a racist/culture vulture and an ephebophile). People expecting there to be something salacious made of his relationship with Priscilla Presley won't get that as Priscilla worked closely with Luhrmann on the film and in regards to their relationship, at worst he's portrayed as an absent husband and philanderer.
*Butler with Riley Keough, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley.
*Elvis' granddaughter actress Riley Keough on Butler's.
This film is solely focused on the symbiotic relationship between Elvis and the Colonel (Tom Hanks) and the bigger issue of artists who are taken advantage of due to ignorance and stars and dollar signs clouding their vision.
Being about Elvis music is a gigantic part of the film. Austin Butler sang as younger Elvis but as he got older they blended Butler's vocals with Presley's (much like what was done in BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY with Rami Malek, Marc Martel and Freddie Mercury's vocals).
Knowing Luhrmann and how he's not afraid of being anachronistic, I was curious as to how the film would use the songs from the soundtrack. The soundtrack a mix of covers and songs inspired by Elvis' hits was used sparingly as to not completely disrupt the film - Kacey Musgraves' "Can't Help Falling In Love" plays softly underneath a scene, Jack White's blistering guitar riff from his cover of Elvis' "Power of My Love" punctuates another, Doja Cat's "Vegas" is blended with Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog". The end credits features Eminem and Cee-Lo Green's "The King and I" and Måneskin's cover of Elvis' "If I Can Dream".
*You're not imagining things - yes, Kodi Smit-McPhee, the human stick insect - supplies a song for the soundtrack as his character Jimmie Rodgers Snow.
Other songs used that is not in the soundtrack includes a Britney Spears/ Backstreet Boys mash-up of "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" and "Toxic" which surprisingly works in the midst of a montage.
Starring Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, Olivia DeJonge, Luke Bracey, Natasha Bassett, David Wenham, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Xavier Samuel, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Dacre Montgomery, Leon Ford, Kate Mulvany, Chaydon Jay, Josh McConville, Patrick Shearer, Adam Dunn, Yola Quartey, Alton Mason, Gary Clark Jr. and Anthony LaPaglia.
Screenplay by Baz Luhrmann & Sam Bromell and Baz Luhrmann & Craig Pearce and Jeremy Doner.
Directed by Baz Luhrmann.
Distributed by Warner Bros. 159 minutes. Rated PG-13.
The story of Elvis Presley always seemed to be an odd fit for the hyperactive filmmaking style of Baz Luhrmann (Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge, The Great Gatsby), a concern that is only partially alleviated in this latest glitzy-but-overwrought take on the life and death of the King of Rock and Roll.
Presley is an iconic character in pop culture – 45 years after his death people still make pilgrimages to his home and his gravesite – who has been often portrayed on film, sometimes well, sometimes not. Elvis has sort of the perfect American story, a dream turned tragedy in which talent, good looks, and raw charisma led a young country boy to unparalleled heights, only to lose it all to drugs, sycophants and mental illness.
Relative unknown Austin Butler (he was previously probably best known for the short-lived series The Shannara Chronicles and The Carrie Diaries) is a revelation as Presley, capturing the man’s essence and swagger.
A little more problematic is the performance of Tom Hanks as his manager Colonel Tom Parker, buried under a ton of makeup and a rather bizarre accent. It is hard to tell how much of this off-puttingness is due to the performance, how much is due to the disguise, and how much is due to the fact that the Colonel was just a weird, inexplicable guy. Perhaps Hanks is nailing the role, but he always feels off, which is a problem because The Colonel is every bit as important – maybe even more so – to this story than Elvis is. (In fact, the film probably should have more accurately been called Elvis and the Colonel.)
A guy I know, who is more of an Elvis expert than I am, has come to the decision that Luhrmann’s quick cuts and flashy graphics are supposed to be visual cues for the story as seen through the eyes of the ill and drug-addled Parker. While I think that may be giving Luhrmann a bit more credit than he deserves, if that is really the case then maybe it does work better.
However, in the second half, when Luhrmann allows the film to actually play out with less of the gaudy cuts and cheesy gimmicks is where the film finds its footing. (Luhrmann has a tendency to front-load his flashier tendencies in his films and then eventually settles into a storytelling groove.)
The story itself is well known and shown in broad gestures, you don’t learn anything here that you wouldn’t have found in any extended article about the King, but still the Presley story is fascinating enough that it’s always worth seeing.
So while Elvis runs a bit too long (two hours and 40 minutes!) and some of the early scenes are a little vertigo-inducing, overall it is a fairly good film with a star-making lead performance.
Besides, both Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley – Elvis’ widow and daughter – have been very vocal in their support of the film, claiming that it got Elvis more than any previous film had. And I guess they should know.
We were commissioned by Back Market to tell this story to help encourage people to wean themselves off tech product launch cycles. We used a combination of live action puppetry, 2D facial animation and stop motion.
A lovely bunch of people worked on this, to name but a few: James Noellert designed the human characters. Andy Gent and his team made the puppets and some sets. Other sets were made by Aslyum. Previs and VFX adeptly handled by the beautiful brainiacs at Nexus. Full credits below——>
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CREDITS
Client: Back Market
Co-Founder & CCO: Vianney Vaute
Strategic Advisor: Seth Farbman
Creative Director: Jeff Johnson
Creative Director: Steve Peck
Head of US Marketing: Woody Wright
Executive Producer: Melanie Baublis
Strategic Consultant: Jeff Kenyon
Lead Art Director: Victor Antonelli
Head of Content: Eugena Ossi
Expert Copywriter: Adam Pasulka
Hannah Laloum: Creative Studio Manager
Lucy Hargrove: Social Media Manager
Production Company: Nexus Studios
Director: Johnny Kelly
Executive Producer: Josephine Gallagher
Executive Producer: Camila de Biaggi
Senior Producer: Josephine Gallagher
Production Manager: Ruyi Meer
Production Assistant: Max Bigg
VFX Supervisor & Lead Compositor: Germán Diez
Studio CG Supervisor: Mark Davies
Editor: Dave Slade
Art Directors: Melanie Climent & Callum Strachan
Character Designer: James Noellert
2D Animators: Chris Cray, Joe Sparkes, Matt Partridge
Motion Graphics Animation: Bethany Levy, Abel Kohen
Compositors: Gareth Tredrea, Hugo Vieites Caamano, Sander Saks, Victori Jalabert, Alexandre Gaudiano
Storyboards: Richard Buxton
Puppet & Set Build: Arch Model Studio
Sets & Puppets: Andy Gent, Lisa Hill
Set Build: Asylum
Set Supervisor: Peter Tilbe
Set Technician: Josh Guess, Tom Bull, Daniel Tynan
Live-Action & Puppetry:
Director of Photography: Matt Fox
1st AD: Robert Thorpe
Production Manager: Rhian Gwenlan
Runner: Kai Rajakulasingam
2nd AC: Rosamund Freeman
Grip: Kevin Foy
DIT: Phoebe Frazer
CCTV Operator: Liam Coles
Focus Puller: Ben Jones
Gaffer: Paul Allen
Electricians: Jono Yates, Bill Rae Smith, Michael Smit, Ed Riley, Tim Jordan, Auxane Verdier, Ana Krkljus
Catering: Lords of Poké
Lead Puppeteer: Tim Cherry Jones
Puppeteers: Shakara Carter, Kim Scopes
Lead Animator: Tobias Fouracre
1st AC (stop motion): George Warren
Set Maintenance: Mark Chippington
Puppet Maintenance: Sofia Serrano
Grade: Aubrey Woodiwiss
Post house: Untold Studios
Grade Producer: Simon Downie
Voice Over: Geoff Grimwood, Pacific Blain
Sound Design and Mix: Jon Clarke
Audio Producer: Ciara Wakley
Sound Studio: Factory
Music Composition: Q Department
PR & Marketing: Valentina Tarelli, Nancy Edmondson, Isobel Wise, Stephanie Anjo
Behind The Scenes: Juliette Dalton @ 2Dice Productions
Medics: Simon Lee, Paul Mawson