In Priscilla, Sofia Coppola Finds the Girl Behind the Icon: Review
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The post In Priscilla, Sofia Coppola Finds the Girl Behind the Icon: Review appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: Elvis Presley, it seems, has had an outsized role in pop culture in the last few years. When it was revealed that two acclaimed directors would be taking on the life of The King through film, comparisons were inevitable — but, after all the discourse, it turns out that Baz Lurhmann’s maximalist, Austin Butler-driven epic and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla don’t even really feel like they exist in the same universe as one another.
As the title suggests, the focus of this film is firmly on the first and only wife of Elvis. We first meet Priscilla (an utterly remarkable Cailee Spaeny) at age 14, while living on the military base in West Germany where her father is stationed. Spaeny looks and sounds so, so terribly young as Priscilla that you can’t help but hope the romantic events of the film won’t begin for a while — but begin they do, when she finds herself invited to a party at the home of Elvis (Jacob Elordi). The superstar (24 years old at the time) is immediately smitten with the teenager, confessing to her that he misses home and finds comfort in speaking with her.
The film then spends its time strolling through the years Elvis and Priscilla spent together. Priscilla Presley herself served as an executive producer on the film, and Coppola’s script is based off Presley’s autobiography, Elvis and Me.
Priscilla (A24)
Always On My Mind: Priscilla is an exercise in anxiety. The events of the film have the viewer braced for something terrible to happen almost the entire time — which does occur, but also doesn’t. There’s a frankness to the way the story is told, because this lens on Elvis doesn’t feel accusatory as much as it feels deeply honest. From the jump, we get the sense that the superstar genuinely cares for this person and develops a love for her. However he is also, with certainty, being manipulative and grooming this young woman into his ideal partner, a person stripped of her own agency and interiority.
Their romance is a slow but very slippery slope. We see how small compromises from Priscilla’s rightfully concerned parents snowball into her moving across the world and into Graceland before she’s even graduated high school. Everyone around her eventually finds themselves just as charmed as the young woman, and Priscilla herself perseveres against the red flags constantly rising and falling around her.
But when things are good, they’re incredible — the viewer gets swept up in the sweet moments of domesticity, the hazy glow of a summer pool party, or the excitement of first-class flights and blank checks. Coppola’s pacing places us directly in the pendulum of their relationship’s highs and lows, and anyone who has ever found themself besotted with a pop star will understand the decisions Priscilla makes.
Can’t Help Falling: If there’s one thing Sofia Coppola can communicate through film, it’s the devastation of being a young woman who feels utterly trapped. Every aspect of Priscilla’s life is controlled according to Elvis’ whims, from the fashions he prefers on her to the philosophies he’s curious about at the moment. In Graceland, Priscilla evokes the image of a beautiful bird in an even more stunning cage. She’s discouraged from making friends at school as “Graceland doesn’t allow strangers,” and forbidden from having an after-school job.
Priscilla (A24)
There are so many men around, always — Priscilla spends all her time waiting for Elvis to come home from a film shoot or tour, but when he does, it’s with his rowdy, testosterone-fueled entourage. As their King, Jacob Elordi is a force to be reckoned with: Elvis was not this tall, nor was he this ridiculously handsome, but these qualities work to the story’s benefit. The exaggerated height difference between the two underscores the way Priscilla (and everyone else in the world at the time) saw Elvis, as larger-than-life. He’s the epicenter of every room he’s in; gravity shifts when he enters and exits.
Their physical stature also reminds us at every turn that Priscilla was still a teenager — she looks absurd beside him, closer to a doll than a woman, prompting only one character to remark, “She’s quite young, ain’t she? Just a girl.” When Elvis slides in and out of fits of rage that slip into abusive behaviors, the effect is stomach-churning.
Keep the Beat: Meanwhile, the props department knocks it out of the park with records, magazines, and editorials shifted just slightly to reflect Elordi’s features, and the costuming, including archival pieces from Chanel, is unbelievably detailed and immersive to the era.
Without the rights to use Elvis’ music, we only witness one brief scene of him performing on stage, but it doesn’t feel like a loss. Elvis’ discography instead feels like the least important piece of the puzzle here, especially considering that his presence already looms in every part of Priscilla’s life; the recognizable sounds of “Hound Dog” or “Jailhouse Rock” aren’t necessary. We already know who the star is in this equation.
Priscilla (A24)
Instead, the soundtrack cycles through music of the time — with some characteristic Coppola liberties taken, like the film opening with a 1980 Ramones cover of a song originally released in 1963. (The final needle drop, courtesy of the music supervision team that includes Coppola’s husband, Thomas Mars, is particularly devastating.)
The Verdict: Bolstered by the fantastic technical direction at every turn, Priscilla lands as a remarkably moving portrait not just of a pair of American icons, but also of a dissolving romance. It’s a quiet, consistent storm, like thunder rumbling over the horizon for hours and hours. Coppola was, without a doubt, the writer and director to tell this story — her films have become synonymous with the loneliest women in the most gilded cages, along with validating the messiness and alienation that can accompany girlhood.
There’s a specific moment in the movie where we see Priscilla realize that her relationship with Elvis is a dance for two, and that she doesn’t have to follow his every request. It’s a small, brief, moment, but it’s there — and while we don’t get to experience the part of the story where Priscilla embraces a life of her own, we’re assured that she will.
Where to Watch: Priscilla opens in theaters nationwide on November 3rd.
Trailer:
In Priscilla, Sofia Coppola Finds the Girl Behind the Icon: Review
Mary Siroky
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