In 2016, media craziness hits new levels of absurdity pretty much every week. So an Oval Office meeting between the world’s biggest pop star and the POTUS isn’t such a big deal.
But in 1970, Elvis Presley’s confab with Richard Nixon stood out. There was the King and the President, two opposite poles of reality, posing for a photo op for no apparent reason.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall during that summit meeting. “Elvis &Nixon,” an enjoyable but mostly pointless take on the event, puts you right there.
The film is told mostly from the perspective of Jerry Schilling (played by Alex Pettyfer), a longtime member of the Elvis mafia. His old boss suddenly asks him to participate in a mysterious mission.
Elvis (Michael Shannon) wants to meet Nixon to express concern over the drug-addled youth of America. Oh, and Elvis wants a federal badge. Maybe he could be an agent-at-large, or something like that?
The movie, directed by Liza Johnson, takes place over the couple of days that Elvis went rogue and presented himself to a puzzled White House staff. The film’s best moments involve the protocol and intrigue that went into getting this uninvited guest into the president’s presence.
Kevin Spacey plays Nixon, and he tries to keep the man human, not a cartoon. That’s admirable, but it would’ve been a kick to see Spacey cut loose.
The film belongs to Michael Shannon (currently in “Midnight Special”), an interesting choice for the role. Shannon doesn’t have the sex appeal of the real Elvis, but he wears the capes and rings really well, and he finds quiet little moments of ludicrousness in the story.
Shannon is especially good at conveying Elvis’s childlike assumption that he’ll get what he wants. Each time somebody tells him “no,” he plunges ahead anyway (there’s a funny bit involving the President’s Dr. Pepper that establishes the power relationship between the two men).
Johnny Knoxville provides down-home flavor as Sonny West, another of Elvis’s flunkies, and Colin Hanks and Evan Peters play Nixon associates (and future jailbirds) Egil Krogh and Dwight Chapin. Hanks’s performance almost seems to be a nod to the style of his famous father, Tom.
How much of what we see is actually true-to-life will remain a matter of speculation. One strange omission: The biggest paradox of the meeting was that Elvis, tragically, had already become a habitual prescription drug abuser when he spoke to Nixon about the scourge of drugs.
The film doesn’t refer to this irony. Keeping things lightweight is its only mission.
“Elvis &Nixon” 2 1/2 stars
A lightweight look at the 1970 day Elvis Presley (Michael Shannon) showed up unannounced at the White House to meet Richard Nixon (Kevin Spacey). The actors are fun to watch, although the movie doesn’t seem to exist for any particular reason.
Rating: R, for language
Showing: Guild 45th, Woodinville
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