OKLAHOMA CITY – When things are feeling tough, it’s nice to duck into a movie theater and escape into an unforeseen world of fiction or fantasy to take your mind off of the real world for a little while.
But sometimes what you really need is just to kick back and rock out and sing along with some tunes blasted out of the movie theater speakers surrounded by an audience of likeminded song-seekers and music-lovers.
Well, that’s what the month is all about this May, with a handful of concert films, rock docs, and musical biopics all primed to have filmgoers belting out some songs and dancing in the aisles (even though you should really just dance in your seat, because of fire codes, you know?)
And of course, we have to start with possibly the two biggest names in the history of pop music…
‘EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert’ – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – May 22 through May 28
One of the most monumental musical artists of all-time and surely one of history’s most enduring pop cultural figures, Elvis has entered the building once again to grace movie screens with his most bombastic and glitzy era.
Director Baz Luhrmann last brought the “King of Rock n Roll” to the big screen in 2022’s (honestly pretty awful) “Elvis,” but here he forgoes all of that film’s head-scratchingly manager-focused dramatization and dives instead into the documentary world.
In “EPiC,” Luhrmann mines a trove of unearthed live film and behind-the-scenes footage from Presley’s Vegas residence days to capture The King in his most sequined, jumpsuited glory, watching as he struggles and stresses over the show and then blows the roof off night after night.
If you’re an Elvis fan, this is the movie you’ve been wanting from a director like Luhrmann, making better use of his kinetic editing and unrelentingly flashy style to bring the essence of later-era Elvis to life.
‘Michael’ – Now Playing
Perhaps the one other American musical artist that can stand toe-to-toe with the immortal legacy and success of Elvis (at least until Taylor gets a ranch and a pet monkey of her own,) is his royal rival, the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson.
And in this new (and apparently persistent) age of the musical biopic, it was only a matter of time before he got his own silver screen crash course for his life and career.
But while Jaafar Jackson (Michael’s own real-life nephew) does an admirable enough job with the voice and general presence of the real Jackson, it all falls into the traps of goofy makeup and misguided idolatry, conveniently ending in the late-80s before Jackson’s public life and image got significantly more complicated.
Still, if you dig the songs, you probably won’t care. Go and dance in the theater for a couple hours. Why not?
‘You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine’ – Oklahoma Film Exchange – May 19
The absolutely iconic John Prine might not enjoy the same universal “household name” status as Elvis or MJ, but you can bet that in the world’s southern-tinged folk circles, his legacy is every bit as mammoth and monumental.
After carving out an untouchable and unrivaled career over decades, Prine became one of the highest profile casualties of the COVID pandemic in early 2020, leaving behind a life of pantheon lyricism, turn-of-phrase genius, and an easy folk humor that outshone everyone from Croce to Dylan.
Over two years later in October of 2022, a host of Prine’s friends, family, faithfuls, and fans all descended upon Nashville for an evening of tribute paid in the only way that could make sense: with songs, stories, and jokes on an old theatre stage.
It was all captured in “You Got Gold,” a full documentary immortalizing the concert with Bonnie Raitt, Jason Isbell, Tyler Childers, The War & Treaty, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, Kasey Musgraves, Bob Weir, Brandi Carlisle, and more and more, not just taking their turns on Prine’s tunes, but sharing their own stories of the man and his legacy.
‘Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (in 3D)’ – Now Playing
Eilish is the rare kind of modern pop superstar that seems to honestly want to do things in her own way, with her own voice and her own eye.
While sometimes that just means a jersey and basketball shorts forming her wardrobe on the world’s biggest stages, other times it means enlisting the likes of James freakin’ Cameron to shoot her concert film.
Cameron not only brings his simultaneously epic and intimate directorial technique to this tour doc that weaves together Eilish’s life on and off stage, but he also brings his groundbreaking 3D tech developed through his “Avatar” films and his undying love of boundary-pushing camera development.
The result is a rock doc that brings the grand spectacle of a generational pop concert to the onstage scenes and a refreshing closeness and intimacy to the personal stories and fan interactions offstage.
Fans of Billie’s music will obviously be sat, but fans of high-tech, hyper-modern doc-making should also have plenty to absorb.
Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
