Review: ‘Shangri-La Suite’ sends a murderous couple on a road trip to L.A. in a familiar style

Rebels in love escape from a mental hospital and hit the great American highway in “Shangri-La Suite,” a debut feature that emulates ’70s indie cinema with style and affection — to a fault.

With nods to “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Badlands” and “Take the Money and Run,” among others, director Eddie O’Keefe’s pastiche veers distractingly between jokiness and reverence. Though the movie’s well cast, its central story rarely shakes off the derivative cloak to become involving. But Ron Livingston’s turn as a sorrowful Elvis Presley is a quiet revelation.

Burt Reynolds delivers pitch-perfect narration of the faux documentary that frames the tale of the poetically named lovers, Jack Blueblood and Karen Bird, and their 1974 killing spree. Played by Luke Grimes and Emily Browning, they’re a hot mess of mad beauty. He grew up on a Lakota Sioux reservation; she was raised in suburban comfort.

They meet at a Michigan clinic and are soon gunning a stolen Cadillac toward Los Angeles, where Elvis is about to open his summer tour, and where the charismatically deranged Jack plans to follow the instructions of his dead mother and kill his idol.

Working from a screenplay he wrote with Chris Hutton, O’Keefe layers in the pop-culture Americana, often at the expense of narrative. But from desert trailer to oceanfront motel, cinematographer Delaney Teichler captures SoCal locations evocatively.

And Livingston gets past the cliché of Elvis to convey the 39-year-old’s self-doubts and superstar loneliness. His scenes make you wish the movie would forsake its hot-wired thrill ride and spend more time with him.

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‘Shangri-La Suite’

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes

Playing: Arena Cinelounge, Hollywood

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