Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic gets very mixed reviews

It received a standing ovation at Cannes, but critics have been less kind to the new Elvis biopic – one even calling it “deliriously awful”.

The early reviews are in for Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann’s much-anticipated Elvis Presley biopic – and some are quite harsh.

Luhrmann’s always been a divisive filmmaker, and it seems like his latest offering Elvis is no different – with one reviewer going as far as to call his foray into music biopics “deliriously awful”.
It’s not all bad, though – the film did receive a 12-minute standing ovation after its Cannes Film Festival premiere this week.

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Austin Butler as Elvis. Picture: Warner Bros Pictures

Here’s what the reviewers are saying:

“Deliriously awful”

Lead actor Austin Butler’s solid performance is “buried alive under a rhinestone rollercoaster of weak biopic tropes,” writes IndieWire’s David Ehrlich, who dubs the film “Bohemian Rhapsody at 4000 M.P.H.” (that might sound quite appealing to some viewers).

He was even more succinct linking to his scathing review on Twitter, writing simply: “ELVIS is a nightmare.”

The worst thing about the film, in Ehrlich’s eyes? Tom Hanks’ role as Presley’s longtime manager Colonel Parker. He called it “arguably the least appealing performance of his career”.

“Austin Butler flounders”

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw didn’t agree with Ehrlich's take on Butler’s performance, calling him “competent but not especially inspired”. He writes that the 159-minute film plays out like a “relentless, frantically flashy montage” that displays a “weirdly incurious approach here to Presley’s music and his life”.

Director Baz Luhrmann and actor Tom Hanks (right) front up to the press at Cannes. Picture: AFP

“Baz times a bazillion”

The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney at least notes that your reaction to Elvis probably hinges on whether or not you’re already a fan of Luhrmann’s over-the-top approach to filmmaking.

“If the writing too seldom measures up to the astonishing visual impact, the affinity the director feels for his showman subject is both contagious and exhausting,” he writes. Ultimately, though, the film “dazzles”.

“Turgid and shallow”

Richard Lawson didn’t hold back in his Vanity Fair review, writing that Luhrmann communicates “little” of Presley’s inner life.

“It’s a film about a legend that keeps him just that: an idea, thrashing away at a distance,” he says, complaining that the film “adds little to our understanding of an icon”.

“Sensory overload”

BBC’s Nicholas Barber calls the film “a hyperactive sensory overload”. “If you’re looking for a sensitive and thoughtful biopic of Elvis Presley, you came to the wrong place,” he warns. But fans of Luhrmann’s OTT approach to filmmaking will find things to enjoy “within seconds” of the film opening.

“An Oscar-worthy performance”

Butler’s turn as Elvis is a “star-making, Oscar-worthy performance,” writes IGN’s Jim Vejvoda, who says the film’s biggest issue is the breakneck pacing as Luhrmann rushes to tell Presley’s entire life story.

The effect is “dizzying and at times even overwhelming” – but he says that Luhrmann and Butler’s clear passion for Elvis “outweigh the film’s excesses and shortcomings in the end”.

Elvis’ former wife Priscilla Presley loved the film – which Luhrmann called ‘the greatest review’. Picture: Getty

“A strange movie”

Variety’s Owen Gleiberman was another to say the film is a mix of highs and lows, calling it “a strange movie – compelling but not always convincing, at once sweeping and scattershot, with a central figure whose life, for a long stretch, feels like it’s being not so much dramatised as illustrated”.

While the film is “woefully imperfect,” it builds to a finale that feels “moving and true”.

Australian viewers can decide for themselves on Luhrmann’s latest when Elvis hits cinemas on June 23.

And the director may not be paying to much attention to the mixed reviews, having already received a glowing recommendation from Elvis’ former wife Priscilla Presley after she watched the film. The SMH reports that he called her seal of approval “the greatest review I’ve got in my life”.

Originally published as Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic gets very mixed reviews