Review of Elvis & Nixon (2016) by Filipeneto — 15 Jan 2021

This was one of the films I saw at the last New Year's Eve, and it was a pleasant surprise, considering that I was not particularly impressed with the synopsis I had read about it. The strong point of the film is the simple fact that it is based, obviously in a very distorted way, on a meeting that really took place between Elvis Presley, one of the most notable music artists ever, and the American President Richard Nixon, remembered by American history for the worst reasons, usually, given that he was one of the few presidents to step down to avoid being forced out from office.

The script is good, and adapts perfectly to a short film like this. In fact, almost everything happens only during one day of the singer's life, who, distressed by drug abuse by young people, decides to collaborate with the authorities as a plain clothed federal agent, secretly, in order to combat the abuses of youth who, for him, corrupted America. Nixon is not a kind of man who adheres to fashions or wants to be with singers, and will naturally pose several objections to the meeting, but he will be overcome by his daughter, who is an Elvis fan.

The cast is as small as the film, but it has a great performance by Kevin Spacey, an actor that I usually don't usually appreciate very much but who did an excellent job as the president. Michael Shannon is an actor I didn't know, I don't remember any of his films, but I think he did an interesting job in the role of Elvis, although I have my doubts about how strict he was in the way he portrayed the King. Obviously, the scenes with the White House advisers stank of comic satire and I don't believe they happened that way. Alex Pettyfer, Colin Hanks and Evan Peters play the secondary roles with dignity and commitment, the latter two with a strong comic streak.

Technically, it is a pleasant film, which entertains and flows smoothly until the end, with good doses of humor and very inspired and colorful dialogues. It has a pleasant cinematography and the costumes make good use of the clothes and fashion of that time. The sets, in turn, are not so visibly dated, but they fit perfectly. The soundtrack is very good and uses iconic songs like "Hold On, I'm Comming" by Sam and Dave, or "Suzy Q", by Creedence Clearwater Revival, functioning as a true potpourri of the best music of the early Seventies.