Why Is This Movie?

By Bobby Finger  |  January 14, 2016 | 11:00pm
Entertainment

Hey everyone, here’s a trailer for a movie about a photograph of President Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley starring Kevin Spacey as Nixon and Michael Shannon as Presley called Elvis & Nixon that will soon be distributed theatrically by Amazon Studios. If reading that sentence made you fall to the ground, grab your hair out in clumps, and start repeating, “What? What? What? What?” like malfunctioning robot version of yourself, we have something in common.

Those responsible for this movie appear to believe everyone on the planet is dying to know the backstory behind a decades-old photograph of Elvis shaking hands with Nixon. They also appear to believe that jazzy music seemingly composed for a low-budget remake of Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11 coupled with whip sounds every time Elvis moves his arms like that will bring those Nixon/Elvis aficionados to multiplexes in droves.

Maybe it’ll deliver the in the form of a charming and surprisingly smart historical comedy. Or maybe it will be remembered (forgotten?) as one of 2016’s most inexplicable feature-length question marks. I guess we’ll find out this April. Or not.

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