2024's Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley is a documentary about Elvis and his eventual, alley-like return to the musical ring circa 1968. "Nobody messes with the King and nobody ever says he's down." Indeed.
"Fall and Rise", well it stars the late Elvis Presley of course along with interviews from the people who were there or could get in his head while peeling it off (Priscilla Presley, Billy Corgan, Conan O'Brien, Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Schilling). The flick, yeah it's a tapestry of archives and probes sifted through a breezy 90 minutes as Presley's singing voice melts the airwaves like butter. Heck, he was so darn famous even The Beatles were nervous as all get out when they eventually met him.
So here's the thing, "Fall and Rise" is an account about the "King of Rock and Roll" that puts the dude in a more approving light. I mean fans of Elvis will be more reminded of the glory days and not the later years, you know, the obese and drug periods that led to Presley passing on that summer day via August of '77. Yup, just picture a less dramatic, more sunny, docu version of Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, complete with swipe about Presley's film career and his awkward relationship with his shady manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
Graceland demises and biographical spectacles begot, "Fall and Rise" while avoiding the whole fan-made and/or tributed tag, is oddly standard in its chronological approach despite being effectively grainy and redolent. Compared to other stuff like the four-star Tina and/or The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, it doesn't exactly set the world on fire. Still, Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley is forthright, exposed, and disarmingly diverting. It goes down better than one of Presley's bygone plates of fried chicken coated with potato chips. Give "rise" to.
Written by Jesse Burleson