Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 36 minutes, Director – Baz Luhrmann
Concert and rehearsal footage of Elvis Presley with excerpts of the singer talking about performing and his relationship with his music.
While I liking Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 hit Elvis biopic I did find the film to be a near 3-hour montage. Using largely never-publicly-seen footage of Presley in rehearsals and concerts for his Vegas shows Luhrmann constructs a 96-minute concert documentary with much the same feeling. While maybe not as glitzy as his biopic this footage discovered while researching for the film is overseen with rapid editing to create the director’s maximalist feel. Perhaps trying to capture the iconic performer’s movement and energy when overcome by music the film, instead, feels restless.
There’s a likable way to which songs flow when performances and different stages of rehearsals, with a growing band and backup singers, are seamlessly cut together, but the problem is it feels like we’re only getting bursts of songs. The song credits list feels almost endless and while it’s interesting to hear Presley singing the likes of Yesterday and Bridge Over Troubled Water alongside big hits like Hound Dog and Suspicious Minds, I sat wishing that Luhrmann would let the songs breathe instead of rushing from one to the other.
His hand is immediately evident as the opening stages is a whistle-stop tour through Elvis’ career in the build-up to his Vegas residency. From early hits and TV appearances to his becoming a movie star, even if after being drafted into the US army roles blended into each other and he wanted a challenge and to show his dramatic chops more. Then, we have the showman himself finally stepping onto stage. And it’s clear from his own words that he wants to put on a show and involve the whole audience – saying at one point that his job is an entertainer, over anything else. A natural, goofy humour comes through in brief bursts every now and then, raising a couple of chuckles throughout.
There’s, of course, an enjoyable nature to the performances and clips we see of various stages of developing and performing concerts. And endlessly barrelling construction, sometimes quickly hearing from Presley about his relationship with his songs, or framing them in different ways – a brief montage of Colonel Tom Parker is set to You’re The Devil In Disguise. I just wish that occasionally that structure would calm down just to let the film and songs breathe instead of becoming tiring and restless, particularly rather early on.
A restless concert montage rather than energetic documentary, EPIC seamlessly blends rehearsal and concert footage, highlighting Elvis’ showmanship and natural humour, but often forgets to let the songs breathe amongst the rapid editing.
Just A Little Bit Random 