Review: Priscilla

Directed by: Sofia Coppola

Written by: Sofia Coppola

Starring: Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, Dagmara Domińczyk, Ari Cohen, Tim Post

Rating: [4.5/5]

Getting the opportunity to gain the affection of a famous celebrity serves as the inspiration of plenty of fan fiction and the desires of fans as part of a fantasy. However, no matter the talent these individuals may display that brought them fame, they still remain human with their many flaws all carry. Priscilla seeks to display the fantasy but also the mundanity of what it looked like to date one of the most famous rockstars to ever live. 

Living in West Germany with her military family, Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) receives an invitation to attend a party hosted by famous rockstar Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi), who’s stationed in the country for his military service. As they strike up conversation and get to know each other more, Elvis seeks the permission of Priscilla’s parents to have the girl spend time with him at his Memphis, Tennessee mansion, where they strike up a romance. 

With the typical whitewashing that transpires when biopics get made, whenever the estate of a famous person gets involved completely denounces a depiction, you just know we’re getting some good stuff. This especially becomes evident when we know the person involved had skeletons in their closet the estate does not dare want to let see the light of day. Elvis, for all of his greatness, certainly had missteps in his life in the way he treated his wife, and this feature serves as her opportunity to share her experience with the King of Rock and Roll. This pure honesty where we see both the beauty of first love, but also what it means to remain tethered to someone so adored by others and a loneliness that can continually brew. 

As the film begins, we see the pure innocence of Priscilla as she gets swept into this whole circumstance, which makes sense given she was only 14 years old at the time compared to Elvis at 24 at the time. Certainly a predatory relationship by current standards and sets the stage for the perpetual imbalance of power in their relationship where it goes beyond age but also the massive amount of fame, money, and sheer size Elvis has over Priscilla. In some scenes their size difference looks a bit startling but it also serves as a fantasy, at least at the start, for young Priscilla. 

Moving into the period of time when she lived in the Graceland mansion, Priscilla brilliantly exhibits the loneliness the girl experiences with being the significant other of Elvis. Sure, she lives this fantasy of having this famous man love her, but she then endures the level of control he commands over her, which stretches to her inability to get a job but must stay cooped up at home as he travels on tour because she must be ready to answer his call at a moment’s notice. This displays several scenes where she just walks around all dolled up in this huge empty mansion trying to find things to do and make the time pass by in anticipation for Elvis’s call. A far cry from paradise as some would imagine but it comes as part of the gig if she wants to live the lifestyle required of Mrs. Elvis Presley especially when she has to acquiesce to changing her hair and her makeup to his liking further stripping away much of the agency in the way she lives her life. 

Going into this viewing experience as someone who typically needs multiple viewing to fully appreciate what Sofia Coppola does with her films, I had no such problem with what she does here in Priscilla. Dare I say she crafts her magnum opus with this feature where she takes elements of her previous films in specifically telling the stories of young women and matches it with some strong material from the book written by Priscilla herself. She takes elements of trauma that the young woman experiences and presents it under the filter of how it helps tell this story and what made Priscilla’s time with Elvis both a magical ride but one not without its terrifying moments. Coppola wonderfully utilizes the cinematography by Philippe Le Sourd to give this dream-like aesthetic to this experience because it feels that way for our titular character in its finest moments. This material perfectly matches Coppola’s sensibilities as a filmmaker there it makes plenty of sense she delivers something spellbinding here. 

However, to completely sell this experience for Priscilla, the two leads need to convince us and the pair of Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi worked their magic in building this magical and daunting experience. Spaeny captures both the innocence of the teenage years of Priscilla and also the mature ones where she yearns for more freedom. Aided by some strong makeup and hairstyling, we can feel this shift in her character as she matures right before our eyes. The young actor dazzles in this role and works well with Elordi, who tries not to imitate but emulate Elvis’s aura through this role. He towers over Spaeny and it displays so much already but the way he captures both the gravitas and insecurity of this very famous man and I dare say he may have given my favorite portrayal of this famous rock star in recent times with all respect to what Austin Butler does in Elvis.  

A loving and raw story of a fairytale experience until it turned sour, Priscilla blew me away in creating this dichotomy of the enchanting pull of this lifestyle while also making it look like the most boring experience for a young woman. We get a wonderful pair of actors to portray the two leads, but more importantly Sofia Coppola working at the absolute apex of her powers as she continues to prove she can tell the stories of young women in isolation like no other.