10 Reasons Priscilla’s Reviews Are So Positive

Sofia Coppola’s latest project is the biographical drama Priscilla, and it has already received a lot of praise. Sofia Coppola’s work has stood out for the themes she usually addresses in them (such as loneliness, youth, and femininity) and for the soft aesthetic of her movies, and these and more are all present in Priscilla. Based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley (who also serves as executive producer) and Sandra Harmon, Priscilla takes a look into the life of Priscilla Presley and her relationship with Elvis Presley.

Starring Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Beaulieu and Jacob Elordi as Elvis Presley, Priscilla follows the title character from the moment she met the King of Rock and Roll to their not-so-sweet marriage, focusing on Priscilla’s side of the story. Priscilla premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2023, and it got a limited theatrical release on October 27. Priscilla has already received praise from critics, with some even calling it Sofia Coppola’s best work.

10 Cailee Spaeny’s Captivating Performance As Priscilla Presley

Priscilla’s strongest element is Cailee Spaeny’s performance as the title character. As Priscilla follows her since she was 14 years old all the way to her young adult years, Spaeny perfectly captures the innocence of a young Priscilla and how the many challenges she went through alongside Presley changed her and defined her adulthood. Although Spaeny is not a newcomer, her performance as Priscilla Presley has been labeled “a deft breakthrough” (via AP News) by some critics, and many describe her as the one constant in Coppola’s film.

9 Priscilla Is A Personal & Respectful Look At Her Story

Given the circumstances around Priscilla and Elvis Presley’s relationship, especially the age gap between them and how young she was when they met, it’s easy to fall into sensationalist territory when exploring their story. Luckily, Coppola handled Priscilla’s story with respect, though without shying away from the less-than-romantic parts of her relationship with Presley. While Priscilla presents the story of Priscilla and Elvis Presley as one of love, it also makes sure to show that love stories are complicated and even problematic, but without exaggerating the bad parts for the sake of shocking the audience.

8 Jacob Elordi Brings A More Personal Version of Elvis

While Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis was all about the King of Rock and Roll, the legendary singer and performer, and his rise and fall (mostly in his professional life), Priscilla shows another side of Presley. Jacob Elordi’s performance as Elvis Presley is a more personal one, as Priscilla doesn’t focus on his career but rather on an important part of his personal life. Elordi’s Elvis Presley is vulnerable and charming, but he also brings out an uncomfortable side of the iconic singer that the audience isn’t used to seeing, precisely because it’s a more personal Elvis Presley. Elordi also brings out the loneliness in Presley, which is key in his attraction and connection to a young Priscilla.

EW:

There’s a soulfulness to Elordi’s portrayal, too; it’s not difficult to see why Priscilla would be enamored with an older, famous man doting on her and claiming she was the only girl who could understand him. This rendering of Elvis makes it clear that it was his loneliness and lost boy energy that drew him to Priscilla in the first place. In his more tender scenes, he is equally a child, a boy who has lost his mother and who surrounds himself with rough-housing good old boys. But Elordi’s towering 6’5″ frame (overshadowing Elvis’ reported six-foot height) helps him turn on a jukebox dime, the lost little boy lashing out with a menace laced with the brutality of 1950s notions of manhood.

7 Priscilla Doesn’t Sugarcoat Her & Elvis’ Story

Although Priscilla tells the love story between Priscilla and Elvis Presley, it doesn’t sugarcoat their relationship at all. Priscilla and Elvis’ relationship went through many ups and downs since they met, and there was even a time following Presley’s return to the U.S. after his military service ended when he and Priscilla were no longer in touch. Of course, Presley’s fame and the troubles that came with it also affected their relationship, with Priscilla focusing on how this impacted the title character at a personal and emotional level. In that sense, Priscilla goes against celebrity biopics where many details are sugarcoated either for the sake of storytelling or to avoid controversies.

Flickering Myth:

Priscilla is the antidote to the typical Hollywood celebrity biopic that can’t help itself from sanitizing the worst, most morally objectionable aspects of an individual to ensure that the average moviegoer will be comfortable watching the film and that box office profits will be respectable.

6 Priscilla Has The Elements Of A Sofia Coppola Movie

Priscilla’s characters, story, and settings didn’t stop it from having the elements that make Sofia Coppola’s movies so distinctive. Priscilla explores themes like love, femininity, loneliness, wealth, and materialism, all through the eyes of a female character, and in terms of visual narrative, it includes shots that can be typically found in Coppola’s works, such as the female character gazing longingly out of a car window and a shot of Priscilla’s feet with freshly painted toenails. Priscilla’s production design is also very rich, and it plays an important role in telling her story (more on that later).

5 Priscilla Shows The Complexity Of Priscilla & Elvis’ Relationship

The controversial side of Priscilla and Elvis Presley’s relationship is all about the age gap between them and how young was Priscilla when they met. Priscilla was 14 years old when she met 24-year-old Elvis, and though Presley was respectful of her in many ways, their story is considered a famous example of grooming. There’s a clear imbalance of power between the biggest superstar at the time and a 9th grader, and while there surely was love between them, Presley was also controlling of what his wife could wear or not, among other aspects.

Elordi’s portrayal of Elvis makes it easy to see why Priscilla’s parents agreed to let him see their daughter, but that doesn’t make it right. The above-mentioned power imbalance was disorienting for a young woman who suddenly found herself as the love interest of the most famous singer at the time, and Priscilla explores all these layers in her relationship with Presley and in her inner thoughts and feelings.

People:

But then there’s our own contemporary perspective, too — our dismay at the gross imbalance of power between this male superstar and, at most, a very young woman. To us Priscilla’s dream looks like captivity and abuse — as if Presley couldn’t help falling in love with Lolita.

4 Priscilla Is A Love Story

Even though it shows the uncomfortable parts of Priscilla’s relationship with Elvis Presley, Priscilla is, at its core, a love story, with many critics even labeling it a “fairy tale”. As opposed to Luhrmann’s Elvis, which was an event in every possible way, with quick transitions, bright colors, and a focus on Elvis Presley’s career, Priscilla takes its time to explore its main character’s story, feelings, and thoughts throughout some of the most complex years of her life. Priscilla is definitely a love story, but not one that glosses over the complicated parts of it.

3 Priscilla Portrays The Title Character’s Loneliness

As mentioned above, Priscilla addresses the theme of loneliness, which can be found in most of Sofia Coppola’s movies. Priscilla married the man she was in love with, but being married to Elvis Presley meant having to make some sacrifices that led to Priscilla being lonely. Priscilla’s loneliness and homesickness while in Germany are some of the things that led her to connect to Presley, but that loneliness didn’t go away when she got together with Presley and relocated to Memphis. Due to her ties to the King of Rock and Roll, Priscilla was isolated (which further feeds the issue of grooming) and spent a lot of time all by herself while Presley traveled the world.

2 Priscilla Uses Its Production Design As A Narrative Tool

To further portray the loneliness and isolation Priscilla went through, Coppola and her team relied on production design. Coppola’s works are known for colorful settings and props, but Priscilla, while having its dose of color due to the style of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, is more toned down. Coppola used light, color, and texture to give the idea of Priscilla living in a colorful prison during her marriage to Elvis Presley, which makes for an interesting contrast that visually reflects the emotional trouble Priscilla was going through.

1 Priscilla Gives Her The Agency Other Movies Took Away From Her

When exploring the story of Elvis Presley, Priscilla is often left aside or treated as a side character – but in Priscilla, Coppola gives her back her agency. Surely, throughout her story with Elvis Presley, her agency was taken away as she was told what to wear and how to look like, molding her into something she wasn’t, but ultimately, Priscilla follows her journey toward regaining her agency, showing the many ups and downs that she had to go through.