Austin Butler Is the Only Thing That Works in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis

Perhaps it’s by design that the Elvis Presley of the new biopic Elvis is rendered so unknowable. There’s lots of him in Baz Luhrmann’s film, swaggering and crooning and sweating. But little of his inner life, the fire uniquely his, is communicated to the audience. It’s a film about a legend that keeps him just that: an idea, thrashing away at a distance. That’s no fault of Austin Butler, the young actor handed a nearly impossible task. He has to embody one of the most impersonated people in modern history in, somehow, a new or revealing way—to move past caricature… Read Full Article