Playing air guitar on a rollicking Hunk of Love, clowning around in rehearsals, hobnobbing backstage with Cary Grant and Sammy Davis Jr \u2014 Elvis Presley is seen at his most relaxed and volcanically charismatic in this concert documentary from Baz Luhrmann. The early Seventies was a time of resurgence for the singer as he returned to live performance after years of making awful movies. \u201cHollywood\u2019s image of me was wrong,\u201d he says over a clip of him acting opposite a man in a dog suit.<\/p>\n
Luhrmann\u2019s film is based on footage shot at the International Hotel in Las Vegas and elsewhere that lay in a salt mine in Kansas for 50 years before being unearthed for research during the Australian director\u2019s Elvis biopic<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been spruced up by Peter Jackson\u2019s digital wizards in New Zealand, who performed similar duties on Jackson\u2019s Beatles documentary Get Back<\/a>, and now every sequin and bead of sweat pops and Presley\u2019s mascara glistens like frost on a tree. Luhrmann has never been one for a muted palette and he takes full advantage of his subject\u2018s penchant for psychedelic shirts, baby-pink towels and lilac-lensed sunglasses.<\/p>\n \u2022 Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n The sound is as vivid as the visuals and Presley\u2019s stagecraft radiates confidence, honed by a schedule that sometimes involved three shows a day. Highlights include a tumultuous Suspicious Minds, a transcendent rendition of the gospel standard Oh Happy Day and a casually brilliant take on the Beatles<\/a>\u2019 Something (\u201cvery suggestive lyrics, man\u201d).<\/p>\n EPiC also paints Presley as an incorrigible goofer, growling \u201cI feel like Bob Dylan slept in my mouth\u201d, mercilessly teasing his backing singers and wearing his shades upside down, Dennis Taylor-style.<\/p>\n Luhrmann can be mischievous too: footage of Colonel Tom Parker, Presley\u2019s forbidding manager, is accompanied by Elvis singing You\u2019re the Devil in Disguise. There\u2019s no exploration of the singer\u2019s questionable love life but if you want that you can watch the excellent Priscilla. This is a celebration of the King doing what he did best, and loving every second. Two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman<\/p>\n Make Wednesday your go-to cinema day. Each month Times+ members can bring a friend for free at Everyman on a Wednesday. The perfect cinema experience with plush sofas, a full bar and great food. Visit mytimesplus.co.uk<\/a> to find out more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Playing air guitar on a rollicking Hunk of Love, clowning around in rehearsals, hobnobbing backstage with Cary Grant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-302252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606
12A, 90min
Exclusively in Imax Feb 20, in cinemas everywhere Feb 27 <\/p>\n