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Elvis & Nixon

  • Film
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Elvis & Nixon
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Time Out says

3 out of 5 stars

The King meets the President in this none-too-challenging comedy drama.

It’s got to be the strangest meeting ever to happen at the White House: in December 1970 President Richard Nixon invited Elvis Presley over for Dr Peppers.

A sharper movie would have pushed this bizarre incident psychologically, revealing the pair’s shared sense of paranoia. The King, worried about drugged-out hippies not liking him, wanted to become an undercover FBI agent. Nixon, worried about lawless hippies not liking him, wondered if some of Elvis’s fading cool might rub off on him. Breezy, comic and disposable, ‘Elvis & Nixon’ is not that film.

But there’s fascination in watching the always-intense Michael Shannon burrow into Elvis’s inner character – he plays the singer like a bored icon who’s outlived his usefulness. Kevin Spacey’s Nixon is a variation on his devious Frank Underwood – not in itself a bad thing.

Joshua Rothkopf
Written by
Joshua Rothkopf

Release Details

  • Release date:Friday 24 June 2016
  • Duration:86 mins

Cast and crew

  • Director:Liza Johnson
  • Screenwriter:Joey Sagal, Hanala Sagal, Cary Elwes
  • Cast:
    • Evan Peters
    • Michael Shannon
    • Ashley Benson
    • Kevin Spacey
    • Alex Pettyfer
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