Guillermo del Toro Praises ‘Elvis’

Guillermo del Toro is a fan of Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis”. He went on Twitter to express his passion for the film:

"The film is dazzling, bold and moving. Austin Butler absolutely nails it — all the shades: voice, moves, emotion. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it."

The film is very precisely- minutely- planned. Barroque is hard to do- real hard- in the inflexible logic and order of filmmaking and this film dazzles.

The rythm and composition of a piece like that- is exceedingly hard to plan, execute and- certainly- sustain. Its like doing cardio for twelve hours. And you need to compose a precise mural with small audiovisual mosaic tiles. You may -notice it or not but its not all staccato or at all the same rythm- just flows. But it has aria-like pieces and allegros etc etc. And each tile flows with the next.

Luhrmann’s musical biopic is getting a lot of hype, to the point where I think it will do very well at the box office. Elvis isn't that popular amongst Gen Z, but most everyone knows who he is and the marketing for the film has been stellar.

As for awards prospects, I am just not sure really sure right now. It’ll depend on box-office and, especially, the critics. The movie currently has a 62 on Metacritic but that will go up, the question is how high. If it gets to 70+ then watch out.

I really liked Baz Luhrmann’s musical biopic when I saw it at Cannes, I thought it was a more artfully delivered film than “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Austin Butler is also fantastic and, really, just the story of Elvis Presley’s rise and fall is a fascinating one to watch unfold onscreen.