#to further illustrate my point: i went and saw avatar the way of water in theaters this week

[muppetjackrackham]

since 2022 is almost over i’ve been thinking about all the movies i watched this year and man, nothing really compares to watching elvis in the theaters. the only other movie i had gone to see during covid at the time was no time to die the year before (since it was daniel craig’s last bond film) and prior to that i hadn’t gone to see a film in the theater since knives out came out in 2019. i’ve loved baz lurhman ever since i was old enough to watch moulin rouge, so i kind of figured i’d like elvis but man, i never expected to care so much about a film like elvis the way i do. and not only that, but the experience itself. the sheer fucking spectacle of this film is one that i don’t know will ever be surpassed for me, because i saw this film eight times in the theater and wondered if it would ever fail to meet the expectation set by that initial viewing, and it never did. not once. it was good every. single. time. i sat in just about every row you could think of and it was not only consistently good, it almost surpassed itself with every subsequent viewing. in 23 years i can’t think of a single movie that has ever made me feel that way. what elvis accomplished is nothing short of miraculous in every way imaginable. i’ve talked about how elvis as a film made me care about a man that only ever existed as a fixture of rock n’ roll music, another name for the history books, a name that mattered in the context of music my folks grew up listening to more than i did. a movie carried on the shoulders of a relative unknown compared to every other major musical biopic to come out in the last few years (bohemian rhapsody and rocketman bolstering far more recognizable star power in rami malek and taron egerton respectively), a name that i hope will go on to even greater heights as a result of his performance and his work ethic. a movie that has given me an experience unlike any other before it, one that i try to relive every time i watch it on my own. a movie that will always be one of the greatest experiences i’ve ever had the privilege of seeing on the big screen.

elvis 2022 man. elvis 2022.