Reviewers are divided over Baz Luhrmann’s new film (red Mill) about the life of Elvis Presley. One thinks the film is “crying and empty”, while the other believes that everyone should see the film.
de Volkskrant – three stars
Rarely (if ever) has an imitation Elvis looked so electric and infectious as actor Austin Butler’s in Elvis† With his 159-minute film biography, Luhrmann doesn’t seem to want to shatter the myth of Elvis – that myth should be enlarged.”
“That jumpy, lavish narrative form, in which there is hardly any room for a full-fledged dramatic scene, makes Elvis sometimes exhausting. Although Luhrmann does add structure, in the form of the narrator: Elvis’ shadowy manager Colonel Tom Parker, the alias of Andreas ‘Dries’ van Kuijk, who grew up in Breda and moved to America.”
AD – two stars and five stars
The reviewers of the AD are so divided that the newspaper has placed both reviews. One reviewer called the film “crying and empty,” while another called it “the greatest Presley biographical feature film of all time.”
Two stars: “The profusion of quick image tricks – those rolling headlines over and over to indicate the passing of time, what a cliché – the wild color palette, the frenetic editing; it’s style over substance. Elvis is no human being here and blood, but a sliding piece of Playmobil.”
Five stars: “What about the music? It is brilliantly woven into the drama. Certain sentences from Elvis’ songs take on a different meaning because of the relationship between Presley and Parker. Like the beginning of Suspicious Minds: ‘We’re caught in a trap† That now takes on a completely different meaning.”
NRC – three stars
“Elvis’ story has often been told as a tragic conflict between raw talent and rock-solid commercialism; Luhrmann shows that the contradiction is too simple. But he does go a little too much to the other side.”
“That gets in the way of the drama. If everything is always a show, then where is the dramatic conflict? The relationship at the heart of the film – that of Elvis (Austin Butler) with his all-powerful manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) – remains elusive. If it is indeed not so simple that Parker was merely the unscrupulous exploiter and Elvis the pure artist – how was the relationship? Luhrmann doesn’t seem to know that exactly either.”
Fidelity – four stars
Could a better movie about Elvis Presley have been made for that $85 million? Surely. Every time Tom Hanks comes on the screen as manager Colonel Parker, do you hope the scene is over as soon as possible? Yeah, oh my god yes is Elvis so a mistake? No, you absolutely must go see the film.”
“With bravado, Luhrmann’s film swings through the doomed life of the ‘King of Rock ‘n Roll’, the man conservative forces once wanted arrested for his diabolical hip movements. Fortunately, Elvis had the audacity to persevere. Just like Luhrmann.”
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