Cal Vid's video: Elvis Suspicious Minds Performance Recreated in 2022 Movie

One of the signature scenes in Luhrmann’s film Elvis is Austin Butler’s rendition of “Suspicious Minds,” which is modeled after Presley’s in That’s the Way It Is. Butler is excellent at summoning Presley’s unstoppable charisma, but on “Suspicious Minds,” the King seems to be digging into something deeper, rawer, which goes beyond simple sex appeal. Lifting the song to dizzying heights, then bringing everything down to a hush, only to lead his band to a euphoric new peak, Presley stuns, an artist in full command of his talent. Butler is great in that sequence, but the real Elvis was transcendent, and because the song happens near the end of That’s the Way It Is, we appreciate how the whole film has built to that performance. Past his prime but far from over, Elvis Presley finds himself in “Suspicious Minds,” the tune’s heartbreak written all over his sweaty, ecstatic face. Elvis recreates it — That’s the Way It Is explains why it mattered in the first place.