Random Sunday, including Elvis

• I am about to hit the road again, but for a much shorter journey this time. No 11-hour driving days this time. You can keep up on Instagram.
• I will be writing about the TLM ….stuff. But probably not until later this week. After all, there are new developments almost every day, aren’t there? I also want my words to be helpful instead of just a peppery bowl of sarcasm and mockery which is the state of the dish at this moment.
• One more movie to write about: Elvis. Okay, so let’s write about it.

I saw Elvis with College Guy (1) this past week. I had wanted to see it since I saw the trailer, even though I do not like Tom Hanks, 2022. (Young Tom Hanks was fine – I love Joe versus the Volcano) – but I find the present version almost insufferable. But I find the Elvis story really interesting and I liked Luhrmann’s Gatsby much more than I expected to, so I was up for it.

Well, meh. I think my Movie Guy Son gets it right here – well, at least, I agree with him.

Are you tired yet? Well, this movie still has the whole Las Vegas period to go, and I really feel like this should have been the whole movie. As the film was going through its final act, I suddenly imagined what Danny Boyle would have done with this material, and I think he would have found a way to distill the larger story into a single point of time instead of trying to cover the whole life of a man. The Las Vegas period, the culmination of Parker’s control over Elvis for his own ends, seems like that perfect concentrated dose of reality for that. Instead, it’s the third act in a long, bloated, and thin take on Elvis.

The montage scene pulling together the early influences on Elvis’ music with one of his breakthrough performances was a masterpiece. It was the best set piece of the entire film. But other than that, the movie tried to do too much, as my son said, and I think in the end, it was not well-served by the emphasis on Parker. I kept thinking how different and more interesting the film would be if we actually experienced more of it through, you know, Elvis’ eyes than Parker’s and the general public. He ends up seeming more or less like a vessel, rather than a creative artist – and perhaps that was the point: this preternaturally talented young man became a vessel for other people’s desires, hopes and dreams.

But it didn’t work for me, because I just wasn’t as interested in Parker’s story as I was in what moved Elvis, where his music and style came from and what destroyed him.

The closing montage – which features actual Elvis footage – was quite moving, too.

Oh, but Austin Butler gave a great performance – even though they were not able to age him convincingly. He did his best, and it was very good.

• One of the most deeply felt aspects of the (sort of) empty nest? It completely changes your relationship… to the grocery store.