CULTURE
FILM FILM
RELEASES NEWNEW RELEASES
DIRECTOR: Baz Luhrmann CAST: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge
Elvis Words: Miles Buckeridge
The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll gets the Luhrmann treatment Baz Luhrmann projects don’t come around often, but when they do, we’re borderline guaranteed a spectacle. His latest, out this month, is another celebration of music – a biopic with the limelight focused intently on the undisputed King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley. Taking the titular lead is Austin Butler — whose main claim to fame thus far
56_What’s On
was playing tussled high school crushes in both Hannah Montana and iCarly — a finer pedigree of teenage hearthrob, you’re unlikely to see. Despite initially offering only a vague resemblance to the legend, the trailer showcases a stage charisma that feels hauntingly accurate. Tom Hanks joins the cast as Colonel Tom Parker, the controversial figure who ‘discovered’ Elvis, became his manager and helped forge an icon. We’re given glimpses of a world charged with racial tension and the entertainment paradigm shift left in the wake of the first truly global megastar. We see what happens when that star’s fire begins to wane, and the internal void that opens when the lights go off.
