The first shot of Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis" isn't Austin Butler in the titular role, or blue suede shoes: It's a chintzy gift shop snowman-shaped snow globe, only seen for a moment, before Luhrmann takes us inside the glass of his tragic tale, Rosebud-style.
That's because the movie is as much about Elvis Presley's manager, the disgraced Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) — the "snowman" dusting everyone with money — as it is about Presley. Parker managed Presley for most of his career, was later sued for mismanagement and is likely guilty, the movie declares, of "financial abuse" of the singer.
Parker and his tacky snow globes, his Elvis Christmas specials, his Vegas residencies and carnival attitude toward art represent everything that the name Presley has been lampooned for ad nauseam: The Elvis impersonators, the vibrato, the "thank you, thankyouverymuch," the Neostyle sunglasses and jaw-high rhinestone collars — the things that are not Presley, but rather a critique of unselfconscious commercialization of his icon.
