Elvis 2022 Review - Hoofers and Honeys

It took me years to fully appreciate Elvis Presley. I hadn’t even watched Viva Las Vegas until 2024, so when this came out in 2022, it wasn’t really on my radar honestly. Sure, I’d listened to Elvis a bit growing up, and my daughter loved “Teddy Bear” as a toddler because my parents had his CD hanging out in their radio, but that was really the extent of my appreciation.

That all changed when I watched Viva Las Vegas. The chemistry between him and Ann-Margret grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.

So much so, that I was inspired to write a paranormal romance alternate reality in Fang Me Tender earlier this year. Then, when this film popped on Netflix recently, I was intrigued, but skeptical. I didn’t know how well it mirrored Elvis’s life or how good the performances would really be.

But I was blown away by Austin Butler’s portrayal, dancing, and singing pipes. The guy can certainly sing!

Anyway, this article became just that much more in-depth and complicated than I thought it would be initially…so enjoy my review of Elvis 2022 and further reflection on Elvis’s life and how events were depicted in this film. There were notable glossed over facts, but there was also depth in Austin’s performance to consider.

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Synopsis

This film is from the point of view of Colonel Tom Parker, who was Elvis’s agent/manager…and honestly, a manipulative SOB.

It begins with the Colonel (who wasn’t even a Colonel) insisting that he didn’t kill Elvis, but it also flashes forward to him saying that they need to do whatever they can to get the man on stage as he’s literally collapsed on the ground. First heart-wrenching moment activated.

Then we flash back to when he first sees him. The Colonel creeps on him and his band and family before he’s about to perform. After this, we flash back further to get some context about Elvis’s childhood of growing up in a poor neighborhood and being influenced by the energy and gospel/revival singing of those in the Black church.

After going back to the show the Colonel is watching, we see the girls already going crazy for Elvis’s “wiggle.” The Colonel seizes the opportunity, and Elvis goes on tour with Hank Snow. The headliner gives an ultimatum, and the Colonel chooses Elvis after a creepy scene in a hall of mirrors before they take a ferris wheel ride.

Fast-forwarding a bit, we go through the beginning of Elvis’s career, the Colonel’s merchandise, the scandal over how he moves, and Elvis singing to a literal hound dog, which isn’t shown on screen. More on that later. We go through Elvis pushing back against this image by singing “Trouble” at a charity concert.

When Elvis is drafted, the Colonel uses the opportunity to re-brand him as an “All-American Boy” afterwards, but what he doesn’t bank on is Elvis’s mom dying when he’s overseas and him falling in love. More on the depiction of Priscilla later.

The film then goes through the run of his films, which get worse when all he wanted to be was a great actor like James Dean, and we come up to his 1968 comeback special, which was super well done.

Then, everything goes to shit as he tries–and fails–to get out from the claws of the Colonel who tries to keep him from being his true self and blocks him from the world tour Elvis dreams of doing, manipulating him into a multi-year stint with The International Hotel in Vegas, and an American tour in place of traveling the world. He plays on Elvis’s fears about his security. Once Elvis finds out the truth about the Colonel and his manipulations, it’s too late because the Colonel blackmails him into not being able to fire him.

Things get even worse from there for Elvis as Dr. Nick enters, Priscilla leaves him, and he basically works himself to death. The ending of the film hits you right in the heart when it flips from Austin Butler to actual clips of Elvis.

The Players

Austin Butler

I cannot say enough about Austin’s performance. He truly channeled Elvis for this, and it is nothing short of awe-inspiring. The effort it must have taken to get the speech patterns, along with the changing voice as Elvis aged, movements, and mannerisms in his performances must have been intense. He must have worked so hard to get this right, and I’m a huge fan. The portayal is amazing. His voice on “Trouble” is so good that you almost can’t believe it’s him.

In looking into it, Austin threw himself into this role for about three years to prepare and film. He studied all the footage he could, worked with a movement coach, and a dialect coach. Austin fully immersed himself to become Elvis, even avoiding contact wtih friends and family during this time. It took a bit for his voice to go back to normal because he had retrained how he spoke.

While we know there’s only one Elvis, they could not have chosen someone better to get as close as Austin did. My heart literally ached with all Elvis went through. I didn’t have much context for his life or just the unfairness of the entire thing until this. Elvis is honestly quite a bit before my time, but I heard him growing up from my parents. Now, I feel like since watching this, researching his life, and watching some of his concerts and performances, I get it.

Upon further reflection and a second viewing, I really appreciated Austin’s great performance. I was even more impressed when I found the comparison videos on YouTube and how closely Austin really nailed Elvis’s movements, especially in “If I Can Dream,” which I didn’t fully appreciate upon the first viewing, but after I watched the actual footage of the 1968 Elvis special, I was blown away.

There’s no doubt in my mind that that song and performance was one of Elvis’s best, if not THE best. The amount of raw emotion he throws into that song is nothing short of heart-wrenching, and Austin’s movements are so close to what Elvis did all those years ago. I can’t even imagine how much study and rehearsal went into nailing that.

Tom Hanks

The Colonel is played by Tom Hanks, who I love, but there’s some weirdness with the accent (though I’m sure Hanks did the best he could) and he did create a character that we loathe the very core of. The sheer manipulation of Elvis comes through and just makes you angry and sad for the legend all at once.

Tom has been a favorite of mine since a mermaid saved him in Splash, but this performance is odd. As many reviews state, his accent hits weird, and others have said he seemed to “phone this in.” The accent is a bit distracting and the character he’s playing is meant to be unlikable, which is confusing to watch, given how he has played many likable characters in the past. I don’t agree that he phoned it in though. The oozing evil essence of this man comes through so strongly that you hate him, which I think is the point.

The Film vs Reality

Tom Parker was already an agent

In the film, it shows Tom as a carnival worker who gets his big break when he finds Elvis, but the reality was that he was already a talent agent.

The Charity Concert Rebellion

While this scene wasn’t exactly true to life, it most closely mirrors the event at Russwood Park on July 4, 1956…

and the Pan-Pacific Auditorium event in 1957…

While Elvis couldn’t have performed “Trouble” at the 1956 event, he did at the 1957 event.

Also, him getting taken away in a police car is true of the 1956 event, but it wasn’t as much him getting arrested or in trouble as it was for his own safety.

After the first Pan-Pacific performance in 1957, Elvis was warned to clean up his act and stop with all the hip movements that were driving fans crazy. It sparked headlines like “Elvis Presley Will Have to Clean Up His Show or Go to Jail,” which is mentioned in the film. Instead of it being a real threat like the Colonel in the film tries to make it out to be, it really ended up being good marketing and his show the next night in real life sold out.

Priscilla being about his age

Nope. Just no. She wasn’t. In real life, she was about 14, which is where Elvis gets a lot of flack from really. I get it. It’s a dangerous topic that feels like grooming today. At the time, apparently this wasn’t that weird and her parents did approve, but it still hits unfavorably. She was a child. Because of that, I get why they didn’t make her that young here because it would have been super icky.

In reality, Olivia DeJonge, who plays Priscilla, was about 23-24, and Austin was about 30 when they filmed. There’s no way we’re thinking there’s a 10-year age gap between the two like there was in real life or that the woman on screen is a child.

I also find it weird though that in real life, she was apparently approached by someone who knew both Elvis and her dad that offered to introduce her to Elvis. That seems really odd to me.

They also used this scene to convey Elvis’s dreams about being a great actor like James Dean. Priscilla has said he also talked about his mother, who died while he was there. It seems to me that, while it’s not an excuse, that Elvis was in a compromised state of mind when he first met Priscilla. He was grieving; he was hurting; he was already being manipulated.

The (Almost Complete) Exclusion of Viva Las Vegas and Ann-Margret

I found this interesting that they completely glossed over Ann-Margret. I’m not sure, but I feel like there might be some bad blood between these two women, so they kept Ann out of it when in reality, she and Elvis dated for an entire year and were friends for the rest of his life.

Baz Luhrmann said that this film was about Elvis and Tom Parker’s relationship, his fame, and struggles, but not a deep dive into his personal life beyond Priscilla. Ann said that she knew the original and didn’t want to provide any input for the film, choosing to keep most things about their relationship private, which she has done her entire life out of respect for him.

Hound Dog to the Hound Dog

Although not shown directly in the film, Elvis did perform “Hound Dog” to a dog and wore fancy threads for the Steve Allen show. It wasn’t the Colonel who invented this like it said in the film, but Steve Allen who insisted.

Like the film though, you can get the sense that Elvis hated this. He was nice enough to the dog, but you can just see how uncomfortable he is if you look up the clip from The Elvis Factory on YouTube. Also, keeping still seems to be driving him crazy as his leg bounces. The man was born to move. He couldn’t keep still. This entire thing must have been so stiffling.

Elvis didn’t fire the Colonel on Stage

While it makes for a dramatic scene in the film, Elvis didn’t actually fire the Colonel on stage after a performance. In real life, he did have his friends tell the Colonel that he was fired, but the Colonel would deflect and say to have Elvis tell him himself. Elvis didn’t do well with confrontation so this was a difficult thing for him. The Colonel did take most of Elvis’s money though.

Also, while in the film it tells us the Colonel books Elvis into multiple years at The International because of his gambling debts, we don’t know if this is true. It may have been, because what is true is that the Colonel squandered his fortune in slot machines after Elvis’s death, so it appears he did have a gambling problem.

1968 special

It is true that the Colonel insisted that there was a Christmas song, but there wasn’t a whole set for it that Elvis brushed off at the last minute like depicted in the film.

There also wasn’t the assassination of Bobby Kennedy during filming, but Elvis was influenced by that and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. They encouraged Elvis to address it, which he did through the song “If I Can Dream.” That song is my favorite out of the special.. although all his leather numbers are great too..

Background Trivia

Shared Pain

Both Elvis and Austin lost their mothers at the age of 23. Austin drew on this shared experience to really break our hearts during the funeral scenes. This adds another level to his understanding of Elvis.

He is also related to Elvis–they are 16th cousins twice removed. Elvis’s father and Austin’s mother share a common ancestry.

Elvis Wore Eyeliner in Real Life

So Austin did too, along with two sets of lashes. He also took both tap dancing and swing dancing lessons to perfect Elvis’s movements.

Song Placement

There is some great song placement, mainly of “Suspicious Minds” in relation to the Colonel and “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” in relation to Priscilla. We do get “Viva Las Vegas” during a voiceover from Tom about that point of time in Elvis’s life and the “Memphis Mafia.”

The End

If you thought your heart was broken before the end, no, it wasn’t, but it’s about to be. The end has Elvis singing “Unchained Meoldy” just six weeks before he died. We flip to the real Elvis, and it is heartbreaking. You can tell how much he hurts and how his body is failing him, but his voice never does. His voice is magnificant, which makes it even harder.

There’s also an earlier scene from what would have been two years before this where Austin as Elvis tells Priscilla that he’s never done anything lasting. It was true that Elvis saw himself that way. He didn’t think he’d be remembered, which seems insane today. He was the original rebel. He gave the world a new style of singing and dancing. Elvis has influenced so much, and the way he was treated and manipulated is a tragedy.

Alternative History/Classic Film Era Novels

If you like alternative history or biographical/historical fiction, I write that as well under the pen name Dottie Fray and historical paranormal romance under Elvira Fray. With two books planned for next year, one biographical fiction entitled Planes and Promises and a paranormal romance to follow up Fang Me Tender called No Angel of His Own (official cover coming).

This article is part of MovieRob’s Genre Grandeur for November 2025 and presented a great opportunity for me to deep dive into this one!