Movie Review – ‘EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert’ proves Elvis will never truly leave the building

The King of Rock ’n’ Roll. Elvis the Pelvis. The Hillbilly Cat. Whatever you might call Elvis Presley, one thing is true: there will never be another like him. 60+ records. 31 feature films. 250+ million albums sold. All before his passing in 1977. Even today, he remains the best-selling individual performer of all time.

Now comes a “new cinematic experience from visionary filmmaker Baz Luhrmann.” Luhrmann, as you may remember, was behind 2022’s critically acclaimed biopic Elvis, a film that went on to earn eight Oscar nominations and put Austin Butler on the map for his performance as the iconic musician. Four years later, the famed director returns with a part-documentary, part-concert film created through a combination of previously available footage of the King and never-before-seen material discovered in the Warner Bros. film vaults and Graceland archives. After a painstaking two years restoring the footage, Luhrmann brings the fantastical music and life of Elvis to theaters in EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.

Unlike Elvis, which took viewers from his rise to fame to his death, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert speeds through the bulk of his life, using about 20 minutes of the tightly paced 100-minute runtime to highlight key events: his upbringing, his time in the U.S. Army, his return stateside, and his initial commitment to acting. The remaining time focuses on Elvis the musician, including his preparation for and performances at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in the early 1970s. The film provides an intimate look at the King in action — practicing famous tunes he penned and covering artists like The Beatles, the Everly Brothers, and Simon & Garfunkel. The movie features no fewer than 75 songs, most of which will have audiences humming along to the familiar melodies.

Elvis lived during a different era. Today fans show up in cut-off shorts and tank tops, whereas in Elvis’s time people dressed in suits and dresses. It’s nearly impossible to attend a modern concert that isn’t intricately choreographed, but Elvis performed in a way where he would “do whatever [he] felt on stage” — changing arrangements mid-song, calling audibles on the setlist, or wandering into the crowd and kissing fans for minutes on end.

It makes sense that Baz Luhrmann is the man behind this musical wonder. He has a long history of blending film and music unlike any other director. Whether it’s 1996’s Romeo + Juliet, 2001’s Moulin Rouge!, or 2013’s The Great Gatsby, Luhrmann has a keen ability to modernize historical settings with contemporary and classic music to create something entirely new. Like those films, he manages to craft a documentary that feels equally big, bold, and colorful.

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert doesn’t reveal anything radically new about Elvis’s life, but it humanizes him more than any work on the King in years. Told largely in Elvis’s own words, viewers meet an extremely personable, charismatic, and funny entertainer. It’s rare nowadays to see someone of Elvis’s magnitude hamming it up on camera, yet here he is doing exactly that at a time when cameras weren’t constantly in his face. Luhrmann presents a man you simply can’t look away from — someone who truly commanded the stage and defines that hard-to-describe “it” factor. The man had it all: the piercing blue eyes, the handsome face, the silky voice, and hips — in the words of Shakira — that don’t lie.

If you weren’t a fan of Elvis before EPiC, you will be after watching this toe-tapping film that makes footage over 50 years old feel like it was filmed last week. Check out EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert on IMAX now or in theaters nationwide starting February 27th.