Shangri-La Suite

Burt Reynolds narrates this pastiche crime drama in a faux documentary fashion.

The tale of a troubled institutionalised teenage girl (Emily Browning) who meets a deranged, part Indian Jack (Luke Grimes) in a rehab centre and go on a killing spree in 1974 which would culminate in them going to Los Angeles to kill Elvis Presley (Ron Livingston) who himself is driven to doubts as he prepares for his upcoming concerts.

The film seems to retread Terrence Malick's Badlands but is not as involving, nor is it nihilistic or darkly comical as Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. With the appearance of Elvis, it also reminds you of True Romance. All three are far superior films.

Despite its derivative origins, director Eddie O'Keefe has nothing new to add, apart from delivering a nasty brutal and idiotic film.

The movie is a story about two lovers on a quest to kill Elvis.

The story is interesting and the supporting characters are more interesting than the leads especially Teijo Littlefoot.

Worth the watch.

Which ever way you look at this, it is a black comedy and a parody of the genre of "Badlands" and "In Cold Blood", lovers running amok in a desperate attempt to escape the System.

Burt Reynolds as the Narrator sure has read his Capote, charting away Jack's mindscape in an eerie matter of fact tone.

There is also the element of fandom going awry, like Mark Chapman and Lennon, or Brutus and Julius Caesar.

And then there is the good family girl falling for the malignant wrongdoer, and the gay friend, like the subtle gay subtext of Capote's "In Cold Blood".

The one-eyed officer Gingrass' character is not thoroughly explained, but one might imagine him having an undisclosed personal motive for pursuing our intrepid trio across quite a number of jurisdictional boundaries.

John Carroll Lynch is a monumental match for the machinating slave driver of Colonel Parker.

Ron Livingston's Elvis is quite the opposite of your run of the mill glamour impersonator, a worn out, pill popping, self destructive, has been ghost of the King with his droopy eyelids and a five o'clock shadow.

Elvis and Jack both receive spiritual guidance in the form of their passed away mothers, the other supportive in times of trouble, the other urging to bump off the corrupted King. Both men are on a mission, but obviously both of their intents are not to be fulfilled.

The carnage just happens, from just a simple headshot when needed, to slitting a throat in order to carry out horrid vengeance. Nothing explicitely gory, though.

The final sortie comes out simply like the showdown at "High Noon". See for yourselves, no "the Butler did it" here.

The epilogue leaves you guessing with a few possible outcomes.

"Shangri-la Suite" is the film's dreamy feminine title, whereas the alternative title "Kill the King" is its violent masculine counterpart.

Background research for 1974 is well done, there are no obvious anachronisms and even Elvis tour dates are historically correct.

Kudos for the contemporary and interesting soundtrack.

To sum it up, an entertaining little flick with not too many big Hollywood names.

I gave this a four-star because of the artistic and independent value. I don't feel like there was a lot of research done on the Elvis character. Also as much as I love Ron Livingston. He made Elvis look like a troll. This was definitely not Elvis. I have read a lot of books about Elvis and he was never gloomy and downtrodden like this movie portrays. Elvis was the first pop, rockstar ever. This movie makes him look like just any other rockstar that's losing grip on his fans. Never the truth with Elvis He also used a lot of discretion on who he was vulnerable with. Elvis was a family man and this movie makes him look like a burn out. Elvis was never a burn out. He was going strong and selling out everything till the day he died.

The rest of the movie was pretty good. Probably where they found the character for Yellowstone. And thank God for that show.

It had a lot of potential but it doesn't quite deliver the goods.

The feeling of the film is a bit weird, not necessarily in a bad way though but it's all very dreamy and surreal, perhaps to empathize the fact that our 2 leads are not really quite living in the same world as the rest of us.

With voice-over narration (that reminded me of the ones that Wes Anderson often has in his films) by Burt Reynolds of all people and a cheap 70's look visually you can't say that the effort wasn't there even if the results might been a bit mixed.

I kinda wished that they'd went in even harder with the surrealism and maybe put in a bit of dark comedy moments in it, because many of the dramatic moments (particulary those involving the Presleys) doesn't quite work.

And although the story does indeed involve Elvis Presley, Priscilla Presley and even Lisa Marie in smaller parts it's not at all based on any true story and I don't really think that Ron Livingston managed to capture Elvis' essence for that matter so Elvis fans might be let down based on that alone.

The main focus is on Emily Browning's and Luke Grimes' characters though of course and while they aren't bad their characters could have been a little more fleshed out.

But even if it didn't make me go wow or anything it's not a bad attempt for a first time full length movie by director Eddie O'Keefe.