My Take – Based on the true story of Elvis Presley, The King, the most famous entertainer of all time seeking an audience with the most powerful man of the free world, President Richard Nixon back in 1970. Apparently Elvis requesting to be an undercover agent-at-large in particular for the DEA, in the hope to combat the nations drug addiction issue, especially with the youth of American. Sounds a little silly right? It is actually quite easy to bash such kind of a film which is quite light on historical accuracy, but that would be missing the point. Both Nixon and Presley grew up in poor families. Both had served in the military. Both were conservative. But most importantly, both were well known, but for different reasons. Nixon was the leader of the free world and was in total control, but managed to keep his family life secret. Elvis was so famous that his image was practically the only thing people thought about without knowing the real guy. They see Elvis and think about their first concert or song. These two public figures couldn’t have been much different from each other, but this Liza Johnson directed film finds a way to have these two icons hold a conversation bonding over their mutual hatred of the band The Beatles. What was said during that infamous meting remains a mystery, and this film tries to put a more humorous spin in what may have transpired in humorous way. The story follows an aging Elvis Presley (Michael Shannon) in 1970, disgusted with the news reports of Woodstock and drug use among America’s youth, decides a change has to be made. He flies to Los Angeles to meet up with his longtime friend and former member of his entourage Jerry Schilling (Alex Pettyfer) and reveals that he wants to be made an “undercover agent at large” to infiltrate concerts, hippie communes, and more to catch drug dealers.

Despite such a ridiculous request, the two catch another plane to Washington D.C. and literally drive up to the White House gate asking to meet with the president. This sudden arrival from the King (as he was fondly known as) puts the entire White House staff, including the secret service in surprise. With only a letter explaining what he wants, top officials Egil Krogh (Colin Hanks) and Dwight Chapin (Evan Peters) bring it up with President Richard Nixon (Kevin Spacey). Nixon immediately says no, despite being informed that a short meeting could do well with getting the youth vote. The rest of the film shows how Jerry, Bud and Dwight succeed in getting Elvis his desired appointment with the most important man in the country and what transpired in the meeting. Part of me thinks that if this film was in the hands of someone like the Coen Brothers or Scorsese, this might have been a hard drama with an in depth study on the two. This however is nothing like that. In fact, this film is closer to a comedy. And I laughed! I was surprised by how much I chuckled at the various ramblings of Elvis and the simply absurdity of his request to the president. I think most viewers will catch right away that this is meant to be a comedy (I didn’t even mention that Johnny Knoxville is also in the story as a member of the Memphis Mafia). So the meeting of these two men does make for some compelling viewing – first for the cringe-comedy factor, of seeing all of the guidelines that have to be put in place for Elvis, and then how Elvis says ‘f*** it’ in less words and does what he wants to anyway with the M&M’s and Dr. Pepper – and then secondly as something else. A lot of what comes down to men in high positions of power and influence comes with what kind of show they can put on to one another. While this is imagined, I suspect this was closer to how their meeting actually was, with the gift from “The King” to Millhouse a commemorative WW2 pistol, and them comparing the size of their, uh, “estates” of Graceland vs the White House. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, as this film so clearly and gleefully demonstrates. The words on the screen at the very beginning of the film point out that it wasn’t until two months after he met with Elvis that Nixon infamously began taping White House conversations (which is why the movie poster cleverly describes the plot as the meeting of “two of America’s greatest recording artists”). Without a transcript of this meeting between who were then two of the most famous men in the world, writers Joey Sagal, Hanala Sagal and Cary Elwes had to fill in the gaps between the known facts of this event – and got to have fun with it but kept away from changing the basic facts or overlooking the humanity of its subjects. The meeting depicted doesn’t have a lot to say about the time period and the troubles the current generation us under, but the writing makes up for it by simply letting their personalities take over and to simply let them be who they are. I was surprised by how much I liked this. That’s not to say that the filmed isn’t flawed though, in fact we spend so much time trying to fill screen time before the films ‘big’ event that a good proportion of it feels inconsequential & pure filler. So yes the film does rely on the titular meeting to tent pole the film but the fact that when this event comes around it entertains from the moment Elvis steps into that Oval Office to moment he steps out makes the film most certainly a worthwhile watch.

Both actors are really wonderful at channeling what the public knows how these men acted, whether it was behind closed doors or in “public”, while not really looking much at all like the figures. Plus the motions to try to bring up Elvis’ relationship with his friends/co-horts like Jerry are alright but they seem kind of placed in here to emphasize Elvis’ true lonely state of affairs (we never see Priscilla or Lisa Marie by the way, which may be part of the point). This is actually more Shannon‘s movie than Spacey‘s, as Nixon only comes into play when the letter/request first come to the president’s attention. superb scripted and cleverly put together, especially the bouncing scenes of each party setting ground rules of the meeting and then the actually eventually meeting. Ed Shearmur does a suitable score but the actually music that accompanies the film is surprisingly from other artists such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sam & Dave and Otis Redding, no Elvis tracks here. Much of the pressure is on Michael Shannon to play Elvis, who really hits a home run here. He looks, sounds, and even made me forget that there was an actor under the Elvis hear and sunglasses. Shannon once again shows why he’s one of the most strangely compelling presences in American film, an actor who in his way is kind of attractive, but also has that ability to lunge at any moment. He does do that a couple of times here, and when it happens it’s like “oh, hey, here’s a scary Elvis, not sure we’ve seen that in movies yet,” and yet there’s also a vulnerability underneath it. The most captivating scene to me is one of the quietest, as Elvis waits in the minutes before the meeting as he tries to figure what he’ll say to Nixon, and rehearses. As for Kevin Spacey, well he obviously doesn’t resemble the resigning Republican with the crinkly nose. No matter. The camera turns one way, the lighting is just right, and “Verbal” Kint absolutely absolves himself in this role. The voice, the mannerisms, the head tilted down. It’s all perfect. The bunch of underrated actors – Colin Hanks, Sky Ferreira, Evan Peters, Alex Pettyfer and Johnny Knoxville are a delight to watch. On the whole, ‘Elvis & Nixon’ is by no means groundbreaking & the surrounding story is extremely throwaway but the film is sporadically fun and rolls along with a great amount of charm mainly thanks to Michael Shannon & Kevin Spacey‘s performances. This is likely to be one of those films to be unfortunately overlooked, finding more success on the streaming services and whilst not necessarily cinema worthy being a drama it’s still an amazing watch.