EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert – 9

Director Baz Luhrman atones for his dismal 2022 biopic Elvis with a joyful homage based on concert and rehearsal footage from the early 1970s, when Elvis was the greatest showman of our lifetime. The documentary plays his songs complete and gives full play to his twinkling smile and kidding personality. There are just enough interjections of the offstage world to keep it real: the Army, marriage to Priscilla, the movies, Col. Tom Parker. But we’re spared the bloated, drugged-out late Elvis, while also getting only hints of the early avatar of rock’n’roll. What Luhrman gives us is the singer, the outfits, the hair, the mesmerizing, transporting effect on his female audience of a performer in full.