Priscilla

Wow, this was an uncomfortable movie to watch. Priscilla invites inevitable comparisons to last year's "Elvis," portraying an exact opposite narrative. Helmed by the talented Sophia Coppola, who commands great respect, and featuring Jacob Elordi, an actor I admire, the film falls short of expectations. Unfortunately, it presents a one-dimensional, flat perspective that left me somewhat disappointed.

While the performances are strong, and the direction commendable, Priscilla's narrative feels tedious and slow at times. The harrowing depiction of power imbalances in the central relationship adds a layer of discomfort that makes the film hard to watch. Sophia Coppola's artistic choices unveil a side of the characters that, while impactful, renders the viewing experience challenging. Priscilla sheds light on the vulnerability of a young protagonist, emphasizing the discomfort of witnessing a story where she is just a child.

Early in Sofia Coppola's languid distillation of Priscilla Presley's life with Elvis, she receives a beautifully coiffed and presented gift of a pet poodle. Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) had recently moved into Graceland when she gets the present. 14 when they met in Germany, Priscilla was still only 17. She coddles the pooch and treats it like a little princess. Coppola (who wrote the screenplay adapted from Priscilla's book) makes a case that Elvis (Jacob Elordi) viewed his then future wife as a type of possession. When the teenager asks for permission to take a part-time job, the musician forbades it saying that he needs her to be available whenever he desires. Like the dog, Priscilla is always to be primped and pampered to its owner's specifications.

One could say that PRISCILLA represents the other side of Baz Luhrman's recent phantasmagorical film ELVIS in both style and POV. That's certainly true in many ways, but it's doubtful that Coppola would have made her movie much differently even if Luhrman's film didn't exist. Phillipe La Sourd's cinematography, Tamara Deverell's Production Design and Stacey Battat's costuming all fit nicely within Coppola's aesthetic. The filmmaker's love of pop music is also fully on display with period songs mixed freely with more recent tunes in a similar vein (the movie begins with The Ramones and fades out with Dolly Parton).

Coppola has rarely been an auteur interested in pure plot and narrative drive. She prefers to soak the viewer into the milieu of her characters. On that level, PRISCILLA has a certain effectiveness. Neither Spaeny nor Elordi are stars, but, their anonymity adds to their relatability. Elordi in particular, faces not only comparisons to Austin Butler's ebullient Oscar nominated performance, but decades of imitators. He humanizes the mythic figure even if, at a certain point, his lack of flash reduces the King of Rock 'N Roll to too much the mere mortal. The elephant in the room is, of course, that Elvis would be considered persona non grata in today's climate. When Priscilla first enters Graceland, Elvis' ever-present entourage are taken aback at how young she looks. Coppola exaggerates the difference by casting actors over a foot apart in height (the real difference was closer to 8"). It does make her look like a little girl (and Spaeny convincingly pulls it off despite being only a year younger than Elordi; Elvis was a decade Priscilla's senior). In Coppola (and Priscilla's) telling, Elvis isn't portrayed as making his young wife into a purely sexual object. He kept her under glass in his misguided notion that he was protecting her. To make her into an idealized good Christian girl and modern Southern belle who his recently deceased mama could have been proud of. It's an extraordinary tricky balance - particularly with the real Priscilla being a Producer on this film.

By design, PRISCILLA never takes a truly deep look at all the details of the couple's lives. Colonel Tom Parker is only vaguely alluded to. The viewer sees Elvis performing only near the very end, and briefly. Once at Graceland, Priscilla is barely shown with anyone other than Elvis' posse. The movie only spans the years they were together. It's a very insular movie which relies heavily on mood and atmosphere. It will be up to each individual viewer if that is sufficient.

I have been excited to see this for months - finally out on MAX so I went for it - and the first hour was fantastic . They were both very good in their roles and the chemistry( or lack of ) was very well presented . It took the story of the two of them meeting and made it come to life , the filming was interesting and the general vibe felt spot on . The development in this first part for the characters was great and you really felt like you were being set up to be taken somewhere

And then ....

Then all the sudden the second half it's like the character development just stopped , very little connected together or made sense without background knowledge into the story as a whole , and then the last 20 min it was like "oh shoot we have 20 min better finish it " and no one could figure out exactly how .

The jump from being in an abusive relationship to being her own woman was instant and it all felt very juvenile and hallmark in the end .

Worth watching ? Yes for sure . Not great film but really could have been which made it more disappointing.

The movie fails to provide a closer look at the real Priscilla -- most of the movie's portrayal is already known to the world-wide Elvis audiences. Worse is that it portrays Elvis in such a negative light -- again, much of which; the drug addiction and its obvious ills, the audience already knows. The actors did what they could to this uninspiring script, especially Elordi but it was really the visuals that were, if anything, at all interesting and beautiful. That said, I could not get past the height difference between the key actors which was an obvious mismatch nor a more in-depth understanding of the main character herself. As I drove home from the theatre I just kept asking myself, "But...why? Why make this movie?" What good comes from it? For me, the portrayal did no good to Priscilla necessarily; as mentioned it taught little of her; her parents or their parenting, it lacked an emotional fullness to the real life story of this romance (if you will), and other than the bedroom scenes, very little of Priscilla's thinking, the relationship of Elvis and she. Lastly, and importantly, it does little good to the real-life extended Presley family, not to mention, the legacy of Elvis.

Priscilla does really well when it comes to cinematography and direction. There are good shots in the movie and Coppola did an amazing job as director.

However, the screenplay was very disappointing to me. The story feels slow at times and gets into a repetitive cycle after a while: Elvis does something horrible to Priscilla, they fight, Priscilla hesitates to leave him, and finally forgives him for unexplainable reasons. And in the end, when she finally leaves him, we don't know what finally made her make the decision, she just leaves. Moreover, I was expecting to see more of Priscilla's life where Elvis is not a central part of the story, as the title might have suggested, but the film starts when she meets him and ends when he is no longer part of her life.

Apart from that, I think Cailee Spaeny did an incredible job and is the highlight of the movie. I have mixed feelings about Jacob Elordi, at times he felt like the perfect choice for the role, but other times it felt like I was watching his Euphoria character.

The movie is a beautifully decorated but empty box.