[Inspector Abberline]

Elvis & Nixon (2016)

It has to be said that fact is always stranger than fiction,and none more so than the time Elvis Aron Presley met Richard Nixon on December 21, 1970. There is probably a million untold stories about both of these two gentlemen,But when the two collided, history seems to have taken a turn for the very weird indeed.The early 1970's in America was a tremendous tumultuous period in its history,race riots,students rioting against Vietnam war,Woodstock and the rise of The Black Panthers and the rise of drug use,are all incendiary and divisive issues. And a certain Mr Presley wants to tackle all these issues,and be sworn in as an undercover agent for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.I mean this comes as no surprise to me,considering his love of karate and guns,although I fail to see how the single most famous person on the planet was ever going to be able to go undercover,wearing a jump suit and gold rimmed sunglasses.As for Nixon himself,the history books will never paint him kindly,but after Oliver Stones Nixon with Anthony Hopkins and now Kevin Spacey in Elvis & Nixon,the cinema has portrayed him quite favourably,well at least honestly,which is probably quite unexpected considering his past misdemeanours.While the film is never laugh out loud rolling in the aisles funny,it manages to look at this rather bizarre incident with a wry smile,and never sends up its two lead characters,there both portrayed with there good and bad points,even though both of them are very idiosyncratic characters who tend to act in some bizarre parallel world to the rest of us.Both Kevin Spacey as President Richard Nixon and Michael Shannon as singer Elvis Presley, are absolutely fantastic,there performances really raise the bar for biographical films.You may be disappointed if your looking for a Bruce Cambell style portrayal,Shannon really inhabits the skin of the King in a much more realistic fashion.Special mentions for Alex Pettyfer as Jerry Schilling,Presley best friend and a rather subdued Johnny Knoxville as Sonny West,both are rather good as part of the Kings mafia.Like I said this is a great comedy/drama that relies on the chemistry of the characters rather than jokes or one liners.