Lisa Marie and Riley Keough at the TLC Chinese Theater in Hollywood commenting on Austin Butler's chances forgetting an Oscar nomination for his role as Elvis.
Austin Butler at the same event. I want to see the 4hr cut of the movie with Austin singing Never Been To Spain!
Early text from my daughter, who is catching an early showing in Mesa, Arizona tonight; The theater is slammed and probably holds about 500 people. All different age groups in here, younger people, even kids, some people my age (35), and then a lot of older people as well. She is a big Elvis fan, but nothing compared to her father, Lol. She is reporting back to me around 10:00 pacific time with a full review.
The critical reviews keep pouring in now. The Rotten Tomatoes average is now at 82% positive. Here is the latest glowing review from another designated top critic on Rotten Tomatoes, Kate Walsh. Why hasn't there been a great Elvis biopic yet? Well, Austin Butler wasn't around to star as the King of Rock 'n' Roll. At the center of Baz Luhrmann's sprawling pop epic "Elvis," a film as opulent and outsize as the King's talent and taste, Butler delivers a fully transformed, fully committed and star-making turn as Elvis Presley. The rumors are true: Elvis lives, in Austin Butler. Movie review: Dazzling biopic a reminder of what made 'Elvis ...
We just saw it in Dolby Cinema, at the special "Fan Event" and people applauded Baz Luhrmann's name at the end. It was terrific. Baz is definitely going in to get nominated for Best Director, the film will be nominated for Best Picture Austin is going to get nominated for Best Actor and will probably win.
I thought the 20/20 special was really good, whad y'all think? Lisa Marie looks so much like him, his granddaughter favors Priscilla.
As far as "Hoffman Forum obsessive trivia stuff", whoever supplied all the vintage sound equipment did an exceptional job of research, and as far as I can tell everything was exactly correct. Obviously, musical instrument obsessives will have to add their own perspective.
Thank you so much for posting your thoughts, Chris. I was waiting with bated breath for your review, because I respect your film and music knowledge so much. Now, I just need @Shawn, @GillyT, and a few of my other fellow Elvis aficionados to weigh in and I will be a happy man.
Thank you very much. I'll post more about it in a few days, as I think about it. I'll definitely see this film again, and I think I want to see it at AMC's Prime Theater if that's possible, or possibly one of the better IMAX theaters. As promised by the trailer, the film is luscious eye candy - even the credits, which are bedazzled with gold and rhinestones like one of his Vegas jumpsuits. I have no doubt that there are numerous things that were combined - as was pointed out earlier - it's unlikely that they ever got to the point of building the Christmas set before the decision was made to do a stripped-down production. But that's the sort of thing that doesn't matter in the slightest in terms of telling the story of Elvis and the Colonel.
Well I just got back home after seeing the film and - drum roll please - I thought it was excellent! There’s a ton to unpack but everything worked. The acting, the direction, the costumes, the set pieces all exceeded my expectations. The attention to detail is astounding. I’m sure I’ll write more in the coming days but those are my spoiler-free initial thoughts. I don’t think I’ve been this anxious to see a film in ages. The theater was at least 90% full too, not bad for a Tuesday night. There were a few ‘promo’ clips shown before the film (nothing that hasn’t been shared in this thread, including Austin Butler doing That’s All Right, Mama for the screen test) that I’m guessing might have been only for this ‘preview’. They also gave away a free mini-poster. There were a few liberties with certain events but nothing that was egregious. Very well done. Anyone with even a remote interest in Elvis would enjoy this movie. I look forward to getting this on Blu-ray - with the four hour cut please! - as there are some sequences that go by so fast I’d love to pause the screen to fully take in what’s pictured. @Chris DeVoe most of the equipment seemed of the period as well as being correct except in one scene where I noticed the drum set was newer than when the scene took place. This is absolute nit-picky level stuff but mention it as you asked above, and as a musician I notice these things. I doubt 99.999% of other viewers would catch it.
At a minimum Austin should be nominated for an Academy Award - his performance is brilliant. He does Elvis proud.
Thanks for posting so quickly my friend. My anticipation for this film is just ridiculous. And I thought I was excited for my first screening of This Is Elvis! It brings back memories of my sister and I waiting for the very first Star Trek motion picture to be released, only way worse, Lol. I have one big question that I think I know the answer to but I have go ask it to be sure. Is Austin Butler's performance as great as advertised? Edit: I see you answered my question above, L0l.
I should also add that this movie makes Elvis somehow seem more ‘current’ and not like some figure from ancient history where people know him from old b&w film. That probably doesn’t make any sense until you see the movie and then it hopefully will.
Musical instruments “? Later 70s period I’m not bothered. But .. early Sun/ fifties I’m curious if they get period authenticity right.
By the way, the bits of current music are not terribly intrusive and do serve the purpose of placing him in a modern context, like having a current artist sample Elvis or BB King. I did want to see more of BB, Sister Rosetta, Big Boy and others, but they had to keep it within a reasonable length for theater showings.
If they hired people as knowledgeable about guitars, basses and drums as the ones they used for microphones, mixing boards and speakers, I wouldn't doubt they got it all exactly right. Remember, they started shooting this before the pandemic, when their star Tom Hanks got sick with covid, they had to shut the entire production down. And then Baz and his wife/co-producer/costume designer Catherine Martin relocated to Graceland where they not only rewrote the script, they had access to all of the archives - clothing, instruments, all the stuff that the Colonel - greedy little bugger to the end - sold to Elvis Presley Enterprises. That's when they discovered people like Elvis's boyhood friend Sam Bell, and really discovered the heart of the film, that Elvis was in love with Blues, R& B and Gospel, that he didn't "appropriate" anything, but that this was his music since he was a boy. I'm going to have to spend a day or so just going back through this thread from page one, watching all the videos and interviews that I skipped over the first time. By the way, this was the most completely packed theater I've been in in years. It was over 90% full.
My daughter just called and gave me the scoop. She said it was fantastic, even better than she had anticipated. Her husband loved it as well and he is not even a big Elvis fan by any stretch of the imagination. She said he had some tears in his eyes during the movie, which he denied, Lol. Most amazingly, my daughter says she plans to see it again on Thursday with her sister and her boyfriend. She got a couple of posters and she is sending me one of them, so I am keeping her in the will for now, Lol. I don't know how I am gonna make it until next Tuesday to see it with my lady.
My boy, my boy....where do I start? There are most definitely three stars in this film: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks and Baz Luhrmann. Period. What can I say? It's a triumph. As an Elvis fan, it's downright overwhelming. The movie is wall to wall references for both the eyes and ears. Endless camera shots that obviously borrow from very familiar frames we've seen thousands of times before, famous photographs recreated on film, blending actual footage of Elvis when you least expect it completely blurring the lines between where Austin and Elvis begin and end. The soundtrack is phenomenal. I foresee some die-hards will dismiss it but I loved it. Some may have already heard the clips already put out--I avoided them all so this was the first time I heard the music. I can't wait to get the soundtrack. It's fresh, dynamic and is sort of an Elvis version of The Beatles' Love album from a while back. I was pleasantly surprised to see Dave Cobb's name during the credits. Makes sense. It's so easy to see how this movie was originally 4 hours. The movie itself definitely feels like the edited down version. It moves so damn fast, even the "slow" parts are over before you know it and they never outstay their welcome. There is just so much story to tell--time's a wasting. My favorite section was probably seeing their recreations of Beale Street during its heyday. That whole part of the story was done extremely well, the cameos of all the big names performing on Beale Street were spot on. It was like a mini reunion seeing all my other friends at the party too: great to see BB King and Little Richard represented. Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe too--just wonderful. Priscilla was quoted recently saying that Elvis would have loved this movie. I think she's totally right. That to me hits the nail on the head. To think of all the things that had to come together to get to this point...it was absolutely worth the wait. It's astonishing if you think about it. This movie gets it right on many levels. It's not perfect but pretty damn close. There will probably never be another Elvis movie and that's fine with me. This one will do just fine. First impressions for now, we'll get to the nitty-gritty stuff later.
