★★★★ Well, after two half-baked explosions (the underrated Australia, the slightly baroque The Great Gastby), the Baz Luhrman from Romeo + Juliet is back and, above all, the one from Moulin Rouge! That is to say, the full pop steamroller with everything that the term “pop” can include (which, let’s be precise, is basically everything, too) put at the service of narrating the history of the first great pop steamroller, neither more nor less. It is difficult to find in history (of art or history alone) a guy who influenced societies as strongly as Elvis Presley. It’s not just music, it’s not just rock, it’s not just the breaking down of every barrier: Presley is elusive. And that’s where this movie that plays all the games at the same time (from the most vulgar biography to the caricature: the character of Hanks constantly moves between these two poles) has its only weakness. In effect, after accelerating in a way that is not recommended today in big-show cinema, “history” and its “great hits” appear, which must be shown or mentioned. It is true that Elvis’s life appears curated by Luhrman’s flamboyant eye, also that this is a Luhrman film that absolutely puts him at stake and at risk. But there is something about “Billiken” that is about to upset. Just ready: the tremendous repertoire of the icon (those songs by Leiber and Stoller, for example) breaks everything again and we return to charm and vertigo. In gray times, a full color film was needed.
