Movie Review: Priscilla

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

A haunting biopic of Priscilla Presley. 

Anyone who goes into this film wanting an Elvis movie will be disappointed. This is not a movie about Elvis (the soundtrack doesn't even have any Elvis songs), but rather about his wife Priscilla. This is also not a traditional biopic (though the real Priscilla has been vocal in her support of this film and serves as executive producer). Rather this film is an exploration of the isolation and loneliness of being married to the biggest star in the world. Anyone familiar with writer/director Sophia Coppola's filmography knows that she excels at exploring these themes and she does an especially great job here. As we start the movie we see stationed in Germany (she is a teenager, and her father is in the military). She hates this life and is simply dreaming of some way to escape. From this very onset we see what attracts her to the days she spends with Elvis. Not only does she fall in love with him, but she also falls in love with the sense of escape. As we move to Graceland though she finds herself trapped in the isolation of which she was trying to escape, only now it is more intense. Much of the time she is alone in Graceland and when she goes to school, she feels as if she doesn't belong with the girls her age. When she is with Elvis, things are not much better as his mind is often somewhere else and she feels out of place with Elvis' Memphis Mafia always around. What makes this so effective is that we never see Elvis on tour or making his movies. Instead, we spend the whole film with Priscilla. We experience each moment with her and because of this we feel a real emotional connection through the whole film. We feel as we are right there with her experiencing exactly what she is. This is also enhanced by the film's slower pace, which simply extenuates the isolation, loneliness and longing. 

However, the glue that holds this whole film together is the performances by Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi. Cailee Spaeny's performance as the title character is simply incredible. There is so much emotion, vulnerability and strength behind this performance, that makes it nearly impossible not to have an emotional connection to who she is playing. While Jacob Elordi's role as Elvis is not center stage (the way Austin Butler's performance was), he still completely shines her. Not only are their times, when he comes as close to embodying Elvis as anybody can, but he also brings both a lot of charm and a real human vulnerability to the role. As this film can explore the darker parts of Elvis (especially when he was on drugs), this is deeply needed to make the film feel real instead of just mean-spirited. 

This is simply a wonderful movie.