It was July 14th at 10:30 pm when I feel like my entire life had changed. Let me rewind, earlier that day my family had gone out to dinner to celebrate my brother’s 25th birthday. We were wrapping up when my brother decided to talk about some recent movies he had seen. I wasn’t really zoned into the conversation because honestly, I can’t stand sitting in a theater with a bunch of people I don’t know but he said something that immediately caught my attention. He said, “Elvis was pretty good, long but really good.”
Growing up I LOVED Elvis. He was everything to me, from watching Lilo and Stitch to hearing the first chords of Heart Break Hotel to sitting in the car with my dad listening to Hound Dog on repeat because I loved the way he sounded. My father had grown up listening to Elvis and watching his movies so naturally, it made sense that we had grown up listening to him as well.
I immediately pulled out my phone and began looking for the soonest showing nearby. It happened to be a 10:30 pm show which I knew my dad would never go for but luckily his girlfriend had been wanting to see it as well so we convinced him to tag along. We walked into the theater and took our seats.
Going in I had a little knowledge of Elvis from the aforementioned childhood but other than that I really knew nothing about the movie, except for the fact that it was starring one of my many childhood crushes, Austin Butler.
The boring trailers played and I was convinced I was going to fall asleep but when I tell you that AS SOON as the Elvis intro played I was locked in. Suspicious minds began to play and the very loud and almost obnoxious title card just screamed the Elvis I knew growing up. I was mesmerized. Five minutes in and I could already tell you that this was going to be one of the best movies I had seen in a LONG time.
The first glimpse of Austin Butler as Elvis nearly took my breath away. It wasn’t that he looked exactly like Elvis but there was something about the first few seconds of his hayride performance that had me absolutely sold. The mannerisms were eerily similar to the performances I had seen of Elvis. I won’t go into detail, one because I simply don’t think I could fully explain how fantastic Austin Butler was in the role, and two because if you somehow have not yet seen this film you need to drop EVERYTHING and watch it immediately. It’s available to stream on HBO Max or you can rent or buy on Apple TV.
Now I have a very unhinged personality, the second I realize I like something I will jump head-on into the subject until I physically feel ill, it’s a problem I know, and this was no different. I went home and immediately began googling to see what I could learn about his life that wasn’t in the movie. I began looking for his records and CDs, even emailing the movie theater to see if I could possibly get one of the movie posters after the film had wrapped up its time in theaters, I did in fact get one and it’s a 6-foot poster hanging in my bedroom now, and have purchased a few vinyls for my record player. I listen to him all the time now and I have yet to get tired of his music. I truly think his voice is timeless and his music will never not be good. Jailhouse Rock, a film and a song, that came out almost 67 years ago is still such a fantastic song.
This movie was everything to me, It reminded me of the childhood I so missed. Just sitting with my dad and listening to music that he had loved growing up. This movie reminded me of just how amazing of a performer Elvis Presley was. There was just something about him that I don’t think we’ll ever see again. He was such a talented individual and this film’s depiction of his life was both beautiful and devastating.