Movie · 2022 · Music, History, Drama · 2h 39m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 4.2/10 (1.4M ratings)
The Man. The Legend. The King of Rock & Roll.
Overview
The life story of Elvis Presley as seen through the complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.2/10
IMDb: 7.3/10
Letterboxd: 3.36/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 77%
Metacritic: 64
TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
Baz Luhrmann
Production
Warner Bros. Pictures, Bazmark, The Jackal Group
Cast
Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, Kelvin Harrison Jr., David Wenham, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Luke Bracey, Dacre Montgomery, Leon Ford, Gary Clark Jr., Yola, Natasha Bassett, Xavier Samuel, Adam Dunn, Alton Mason, Shonka Dukureh, David Gannon, Shannon Sanders
Curator Review
Verdict
A flashy, overstuffed biopic that often feels more like a feverish music video than a cleanly shaped life story. It’s strongest as spectacle and star-making, weaker as a fully satisfying portrait of Presley’s inner life.
Best for
Viewers who like maximalist, high-energy filmmaking
Fans of performance-driven biopics
People interested in the machinery of fame and exploitation
Audiences who want style, music, and momentum over strict historical nuance
Skip if
You want a restrained or intimate biopic
You’re looking for deep psychological insight
You dislike hyperactive editing and sensory overload
You prefer straightforward chronology and tonal consistency
Overview
Baz Luhrmann turns Elvis Presley’s life into a neon-lit rush of performance, commerce, and self-mythology. The movie is less interested in sober biography than in translating the sensation of stardom into cinematic excess, with Austin Butler giving the film its emotional center and physical electricity.
Worth noting
The result is frequently exhilarating, especially when it leans into concert spectacle and the collision between Elvis’s charisma and the machinery built around him. But the same approach can make the film feel breathless and surface-level, as if it is always sprinting to the next set piece before fully landing the last one.
Bottom line
Tom Hanks’s Colonel Tom Parker adds a grotesque, controlling counterweight, though the film’s real appeal is its momentum and visual bravado. If you enjoy biopics that behave like pop operas, this is an easy recommendation; if you want depth over dazzle, it may leave you admiring the craft more than feeling the tragedy.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Patrick Willems (3★) · 22650 likes
Congrats to Baz Luhrmann for making the world’s first two and a half hour movie trailer
Bryan Espitia (3★) · 15638 likes
I always said an Elvis biopic wouldn’t be complete without a Doja Cat needle drop
jonathan fujii (2.5★) · 14938 likes
Why did this move so fast yet feel 4 hours long
mikeythelad (4.5★) · 11801 likes
seeing elvis walk around beale street while doja cat blasts was the craziest thing i’ve ever seen
Olivia Craighead (4★) · 8888 likes
the covid got into tom hanks’s brain, that is the only explanation for what he’s doing here