Director Baz Luhrmann’s second take on the life and legend of the King of Rock ‘n Roll, “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” had its world premiere this weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival.
A documentary that is “kind of a tone poem,” according to the Australian director, who introduced the movie before its Sept. 6 screening, the 96-minute “EPiC” largely was crafted by Luhrmann and editor Jonathan Redmond from some 59 hours of previously unseen footage from the Warner Bros. vaults, plus audio and visual content from the Graceland archive.
Luhrmann uncovered the material while preparing his previous Presley picture, “Elvis,” the 2022 biopic that earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Austin Butler). The `biopic was essentially a cradel-to-grave chronicle, but the new movie focuses on Elvis’ Las Vegas concerts at the International Hotel, from 1969 to 1976, with emphasis on 1970.
How was “EPiC” received? Ecstatically, for the most part. Here’s what some critics had to say about the movie:
Variety: In a lengthy review, Owen Gleiberman wrote: “Think back to the greatest concert you ever saw — it could be Springsteen or U2 or the Stones, or Lady Gaga or the Ramones, or Taylor Swift or Radiohead, or (in my case) two concerts from the ’80s (Prince and X) and one from the 2000s (Madonna on her ‘Confessions’ tour). Now think back to the greatest moment in that concert, the one that gave you chills you can still feel. That’s the kind of experience I predict you’ll have watching ‘EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,’ an extraordinary new documentary… The movie is a revelation, because for 96 minutes it shows you just how intoxicating Elvis Presley was when he began to perform live in Las Vegas in 1969 and the early ’70s.” Declaring that the movie reclaims Elvis from the “kingdom of kitsch,” Gleiberman writes that Luhrmann presents Presley as a visionary of “postmodern excess,” adding: “In the age of Vegas residencies (not just Gaga but the Grateful Dead!), Elvis’s Las Vegas gigs now look startlingly ahead of their time.”
The Wrap: Under the headline “Baz Luhrmann Doesn’t Need Austin Butler to Make Another Rockin’ Elvis Movie,” critic Steve Pond classifies “EPiC” as “a remix along the lines of the nerviest moments from Luhrmann’s last Elvis movie,” because “it’s far from a straight concert film.” Rather, “it mixes concert footage with rehearsals, studio sessions, archival materials and voiceovers in which Elvis describes his life in a way that seems more casual and perhaps more honest than most of his public statements… ‘EPiC’ is Elvis through the Baz lens, where big and bold is always preferable to straightforward and where going over-the-top is never considered a bad thing.”
Spin: On the rock website, Karen Bliss writes that decades of “Elvis busts, Elvis impersonators, velvet Elvis, Elvis weddings” and other “gaudy” distractions have “overshadowed a simple indisputable fact: Elvis was one-of-a-kind, extraordinarily handsome, cool, charismatic, funny, and an amazing singer, arranger and song interpreter…” Luhrmann’s film, she says, succeeds in its “mission” to lay to rest the idea that Elvis was “hokey” rather than “electrifying.”
The Guardian: The British newspaper awarded “EPiC” three out of five stars. Reporting that fans left their seats and danced in the aisles “during the big numbers like ‘Burning Love,'” critic Radheyan Simonpillai reports that Elvis is such “a hypnotic stage presence” that Luhrmann “slows down his typically aggressive editing style,” to let Elvis set the pace and tell his own story: “There are no talking heads here, just excerpts from Elvis’s interviews offering a running commentary over unearthed footage that shows off what an electric performer…” However, Simonpillai criticizes Luhrmann for “stacking the deck in Elvis’s favor” by blaming Elvis’ “unflattering” decisions (his ducking a press question about the Vietnam War, for example) on the influence of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
Elvis Presley is the subject of Baz Luhrmann’s new movie “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.”
The celebrity.land: “EPiC” is “vibrant” and “rousing,” concluded Johnny Oleksinski. “For those who do not have a room in the house devoted to Elvis memorabilia, or care a lick about the guy, ‘EPiC’ is still an energizing experience… If you’re on the fence now, you’ll walk away believing Elvis was, indeed, one of the greats.”
“EPiC” likely will arrive in theaters and on streaming services next year, perhaps in coordination with the Jan. 8 observance of what would have been Elvis Presley’s 90th birthday). So far, however, no release date has been announced.
John Beifuss is a features reporter for The Commercial Appeal. He can reached [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: What critics are saying about Baz Luhrmann’s new Elvis documentary
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