Elvis & Nixon (2016)

Genre

Comedy

Director

Liza Johnson

Country

USA

Cast

Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey, Alex Pettyfer, Colin Hanks, Evan Peters, Tate Donovan, Hanala Sagal, Johnny Knoxville, Sky Ferreira, Tracy Letts, Ahna O'Reilly, Ashley Benson, Poppy Delevingne, Dylan Penn, Joey Sagal, Geraldine Singer

Storyline

The untold true story behind the secret meeting between Elvis Presley (Michael Shannon) and President Richard Nixon (Kevin Spacey), from when Elvis showed up on the lawn of the White House to when he actually met the President.

Opinion

Being a huge fan of Kevin Spacey, I've been waiting to see this film for a long time, but the wait has not been fully repaid. In fact "Elvis & Nixon" unfortunately is an occasionally funny film that isn't much more than a time filler.

Whether it stayed true to history or not - and because of the moment's secrecy I doubt someone can tell that -, the story is actually interesting, kept me curious about the outcome of the meeting and engaged me since the very beginning, not to mention that the ending is not a disappointment.

However, at times, the film focuses on the wrong thing, character actually, Elvis's longtime friend Jerry Schilling. Since the film is called "Elvis & Nixon" and not "Elvis, Jerry & Nixon", I found it a complete waste of time to give so much screen time to this character, his ambitions and his sentimental life. It is supposed to be about Elvis wanting to become an undercover agent at large, not Jerry wanting to create his own business.

That being said, the film does have another major problem, the comedy. It pretty much fails on that front. Other than some goofy gags and some chuckle moments because of the absurdity of Elvis's request, there isn't much to laugh about.

But the cast does a really good job. Honestly I didn't like the cast of Michael Shannon as Elvis because he isn't handsome enough and he isn't charming enough for the role. But he really surprised me as he does an admirable job. Actually, he killed it. So who cares if he doesn't look like Elvis? Kevin Spacey also delivers a captivating performance as Nixon - and I really enjoyed seeing him play to opposite of Frank Underwood, even though I would have liked him to have more screen time. The rest of the cast also does fine.