Alex B Cann film column - 12/03/26

Elvis, Heists and Frankenstein

Once in a while, a film comes along that blows you away, and EPiC : Elvis Presley in Concert ticks this box. Whilst a lot has been written about the King, and many dubious impersonators have warbled his hits badly, this movie is the real deal.

Director Baz Luhrmann heard rumours about unseen footage from two Elvis concert films in the early 1970s, Elvis : That's The Way It Is and Elvis on Tour. He managed to locate them in Warner Bros' vaults, improbably located in underground salt mines in Kansas. The images were cleaned up and matched to sound, and included some super rare Super 8 footage from the Graceland archives.

In EPiC, we hear excerpts of Elvis talking candidly, in an interview which was never allowed to air at the time by his controlling manager. It's sad to hear him say he would love to tour Britain, Europe and Japan, knowing that he never got to realise this dream. Fame also seems kind of lonely, even though you're constantly surrounded by adoring fans.

The King performed around 1100 shows between 1969 and 1977, often three in a single day. His banter with his backing singers and the crowd is endearing, his love for the craft of performing shines through in every frame, and the crystal clear picture quality is remarkable. This is an almost spiritual experience, and packs so much into its 90 minute running time. It's sad knowing how it all ended, but Elvis was a true one-off in the music world. It's so full of sparkle, razzmatazz, and it's rather special to hear Presley's story told in his own words. In The Ghetto remains a moving song after all these years, too.

Crime 101 matches a superb catch with a solid diamond heist story, which also packs in lots of social commentary around ageism in the workplace, the insurance industry, and corruption in large institutions, but in an intelligent way that doesn't detract from the central story. Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry are all on top form, along with a firecracker appearance from Barry Keoghan. The car chases are well filmed, a scene towards the end involving a Bullitt-style Ford Mustang is particularly lovely, and my only criticism would be it was a bit long (but aren't so many films nowadays!).

And The Bride! is yet another star turn from Jessie Buckley (I'm convinced she can do no wrong), although the film itself was a bit of a mish-mash of ideas, some of which worked better than others for me. In some ways, it had a real classic Hollywood feel, and is certainly an original take on a much told story of Frankenstein. Buckley is feral, sweary, and wildly unpredictable, and Christian Bale also gives it his best shot as the Monster looking for love, but it's even less faithful to its source material than the recent "Wuthering Heights". It's a bit like a mad cheese dream.

Alex has now left the building (until next week).