The King

Documentarian Eugene Jarecki (The Trials of Henry Kissinger, Reagan), has called his ravenous assemblage of footage telling the life story of Elvis Presley "a metaphor for America". Actually, his throw-it-at-the-wall approach makes The King a metaphor for anything and everything. Its presiding gimmick - driving from Tupelo to Las Vegas in Elvis's grumbling 1963 Rolls Royce, picking up passengers en route - is sound, especially when, say, Ethan Hawke freestyles an informed Elvis lecture, or Ashton Kutcher expounds on the vacuity of fame as a people carrier drives past full of LA tourists calling out the heart-throb's name. Cultural talking heads as eloquent as Greil Marcus and Public Enemy's Chuck D add subjective weight to Presley's well-worn bio (the latter defending his group's description of him as racist). Backseat accompaniment is provided by rapper Immortal Technique, Gothic Americana duo The Handsome Family and veteran singer/songwriter John Hiatt (who actually bursts into tears at the idea of sitting on Elvis's upholstery). Socio-political grain is added by testimony from the forgotten dirt-poor of Tupelo and America's endless horizon gets sweeping drone coverage. As Donald Trump's presidency looms over Elvis's unseemly Vegas, the vehicular conceit gives way to standard Adam Curtis/Julien Temple cut-up. Like Elvis, Donald too becomes visual shorthand for, well, whatever you want.