It’s been close to a decade since Baz Luhrmann’s last movie. Any question that time may possess’own’nurse mellowed him is answered within the first few minutes of Elvis; even by Luhrmann’s usual standards, the first act of this biopic is frantic with filmmaking acrobatics. Rat-a-tat editing. Dream sequences. Animated sequences. Loop-di-loop camera moves. Incongruous modern soundtrack. He straight away’in a flash’promptly’instantaneous’in a trice puts his foot down and goes racing through the life of Elvis Presley. It’s one hell of a ride, but sometimes it’s moving too fast in/with regard to’concerning’regarding his audience to acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure more than a passing look at his characters.###Luhrmann’s ambitions are laudably grand. He follows Presley’s (Austin Butler) life from his teens, when he’s discovered playing alongside tired country music acts, to his final days as a bloated drug addict, so exhausted he can’t even hold his own microphone. That’s not where Luhrmann stops. He also tells the story of Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), Presley’s manager, who is depicted as a scheming villain who never misses an opportunity in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a buck and puts money bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e Presley’s happiness. And further aims to reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue how America transform’alter d during Presley’s career, from the ’50s to the ’70s, especially in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Black individual , who Presley both maintain’sustain s and exploits, casually pinching impact’effect s from Black artists. Trying to squeeze in so much, even over a 159-minute running time, it’s not surprising that much of it feels rushed.###Luhrmann’s ‘more is not approximately abundant’ample’plentiful ’ style is at its most effective when he’s dealing in broad, simple emotions. In Moulin Rouge! or Romeo + Juliet, tales of desperate love at first sight, his explosive rhythms and romantic excess amplify all the primal yearning. It’s when he has to pause to contemplate subtler feelings that his assurance seems to desert him. His Great Gatsby was a dud because he reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ed little care in/with regard to’concerning’regarding anyone’s interior lives. He was just there in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the party. Elvis is no dud, but it again reveal s Luhrmann’s disinterest in digging below the surface.###Presley’s story is told on a soap-operatic scale, towering highs or miserable lows, and little between. The relationship between Parker and Presley feels underexplored, with the otherwise smart Presley just in dumb thrall to a man eliminate’remove ly manipulating him. In scenes with regards to’concerning’with respect to Presley taking songs from the mouths of Black artists, Luhrmann doesn’t give a single Black character a token ificant voice, a surely unintended irony.###Austin Butler is sensational as Presley. He convinces at eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully age, from teen to 42.###Where Luhrmann absolutely excels, making some of the best work of his career, is in reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ing the addictive but destructive romance between Presley and his live audience. The perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mance sequences are a triumph. In Presley’s first live reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue we see how lust spreads through the crowd like a virus, girls screaming back at him in a way he doesn’t quite understand but loves. Both become hooked. As the film, and Presley’s career, go on, the audience grows into an insatiable animal, gulp’bolt’gobble’engorge ing more and more of Presley’s energy as he itches in/with regard to’concerning’regarding another hit of adoration, prepared to surrender e grossly thing in/with regard to’concerning’regarding it. There’s a manic, sexy, almost dangerous vigour to these scenes, which tell us more with regards to’concerning’with respect to Presley’s inner self than the rest of the film.###Austin Butler is sensational as Presley. It’s a huge ask in/with regard to’concerning’regarding an actor to disappear into a man so well known that eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullyone and his uncle does a wicked’dreadful’undesirable’adverse’vile impression of him. Butler convinces at eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully age, from teen to 42. He’s not a peculiar ly close visual match in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Presley but he’s mastered vocal inflections and imperceptible details in Presley’s moves on stage that mean he captures his presence. More significant’essential’critical’vital’crucial’indispensable’imperative ly, he gives a sense of a person, with normal insecurities, beneath the public image. Even if Luhrmann shies away from finding out who that normal person is, Butler suggests he’s there. Hanks’ Parker is written cartoonishly and he plays it appropriately. It’s not realistic but it’s entertaining.###Nobody comes to a Luhrmann film hoping in/with regard to’concerning’regarding something under the top. His Elvis has all the dazzle and bombast you could ask, but it presents a portrait of an icon — not of a flesh-and-blood man.