Elvis is Giving, Giving, Gave

'Elvis' was calling me, and so into 'Elvis' I went.

Light (?) spoilers for Elvis below? I mean if there’s anything really to spoil?

Austin Butler as Elvis in Elvis. Photo: Screenshot.

This afternoon I walked off a nine hour flight from Hawaii (wedding — eating — beaching — photo dump forthcoming) and into the Williamsburg Nitehawk. (There was a brief break in between for a nap and the latest January 6th reunion episode, if you absolutely must have a minute-by-minute account of my day.) I had to see Elvis, you understand, like it was basically killing me that I hadn’t seen it. All these months of the government’s concentrated effort to get me to have a crush on Austin Butler … Baz’s threat of an Australia re-release … the Doja Cat song alone … I could not put Elvis off any longer. Elvis was calling me, and so into Elvis I went.

“He’s white,” says Kodi Smit-McPhee approximately 10 minutes in. An Elvis song is playing on the radio, and the gaggle of musicians and performers listening assumes this is the music of a  black man. “He’s white?” s…