Priscilla

Priscilla

Priscilla
Sabrina Lantos/A24

VERDICT: The gilded cage that was Priscilla Presley’s life with Elvis makes a perfect match for Sofia Coppola’s empathetic vision.

In the same way that Elvis Presley’s flash, charisma, bombast, and vulgar excess made him the perfect subject for Baz Luhrmann, the life of his wife Priscilla — who left her father’s home as a teenager and went directly into the gilded cage of Graceland — ideally matches the aesthetic of Sofia Coppola who, over the course of her career, has brought an empathetic eye to the lives of ensconced women.

From her first major screen credit (co-writer of Francis Coppola’s Life Without Zoe, about a young girl living a very Eloise-like existence within the confines of a luxury hotel), Coppola has time and again returned to the subject of young women confined, whether it’s the sisters of The Virgin Suicides being hidden away by their parents, Marie Antoinette existing within the walls of Versailles, the hotel-bound protagonists of Lost in Translation and Nowhere, or the young students and their teachers huddling together during the Civil War in The Beguiled.

It was only a matter of time, then, before Coppola turned her camera to the life of Priscilla Presley, played here by up-and-comer Cailee Spaeny, who brilliantly handles the role’s emotional vulnerability as well as the demands of portraying a woman who ages from 14 to 28 over the course of the film. As a high-school freshman, young Priscilla lives on an Air Force base in Wiesbaden, Germany, where her father has been stationed. It’s a seemingly solitary life, but she gets a sudden jolt of excitement when a serviceman on the base invites her to a party at the home of Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi, Euphoria), another lonely American whom the military has moved far away from home.

There’s an immediate connection between the two, and he asks to see her more and more, even though Priscilla’s parents are dubious about the attentions of a pop star toward their young daughter. His Army stint ends, and he returns to the States; while she continues writing him letters, years pass without her seeing him. (Coppola and editor Sarah Flack put a clever spin on the usual march-of-time montage, implementing calendars and holiday cards but also fashion advertisements and other indications of passing seasons and years.)

Out of the blue, Elvis calls, claiming to have been busy with his return to music and movies but still always thinking of Priscilla. He convinces her parents to let her move to Memphis to finish out high school, and while she occupies a special place at Graceland, she soon realizes what’s she’s forfeiting by entering Elvis’ world: She’s not allowed to bring friends over, since strangers aren’t allowed on the Presley estate. (Not that she has friends; other girls whisper about her behind her back, but no one ever seems to talk to her.) She’s scolded for playing with her dog in the front yard, where the fans can see. When she brings up wanting to get an after-school job, Elvis tells her (over the phone, during one of his many absences) that she’ll have to choose between a career and him.

And so it goes, as she falls deeper in love with a man who steadily reveals his manipulative and even abusive tendencies over time. She’s the chosen consort, but she’s also trapped. It will take several more years, and the birth of their daughter Lisa Marie, for her to realize she must escape.

Priscilla Presley is an executive producer here, and Coppola’s screenplay is based on Presley’s memoir, so Priscilla goes out of its way not to demonize Elvis. Does he give Priscilla pills? Yes, but he also takes them (as does his entourage), so the film leaves it to viewers to understand the larger implications. That’s just one of the many “Well… it was the ’60s, after all” moments of character behavior that Coppola presents straightforwardly without the overt judgment of a modern lens. It’s always clear, however, that Priscilla gets swept up into Elvis’ chaotic world, as any young woman might, and her eventual consciousness raising and understanding of her own agency grows organically.

Spaeny, as mentioned, captivates throughout — Priscilla learns when to speak and when to remain silent, and Spaeny’s eyes convey volumes within those silences — and she’s matched by Elordi, who, in the wake of Austin Butler’s recent acclaimed turn, captures the magnetism and the occasional monstrousness of the sheltered superstar without dipping into caricature. (The film mostly eschews Elvis’ music, but Elordi nonetheless hammers out a rousing version of “Great Balls of Fire” on the piano.) The haunting score by Phoenix blends seamlessly with Randall Poster’s needle-drops, a mix of period hits and Coppola’s signature anachronistic song choices from the likes of The Ramones and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Production designer Tamara Deverell and art director Danny Haeberlin revel in the period detail, from the tastefully sterile living room where Priscilla sits, alone, on the couch for long stretches of time to the toiletries she studiously packs and unpacks. (Her Chanel No. 5 bottle catches the eye, and it later becomes a plot point.) And while Elvis’ dictating of Priscilla’s hair, makeup, and wardrobe choices eventually reveals itself as part of a pattern of manipulation and control, Coppola gives the young lady’s first hair-dyeing (jet black) and styling (bubble flip) the loving attention of Iron Man getting armored up for battle or Indiana Jones reaching for his hat.

This isn’t a story of rock music and stage theatrics; it’s about the woman who waited, in a home she was forbidden to leave, for the musician to come and deliver the love he promised. And it’s about the day she decided to stop waiting for it.

Director: Sofia Coppola
Screenwriter: Sofia Coppola, based on “Elvis and Me” by Priscilla Presley with Sandra Harmon
Cast: Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, Dagmara Dominczyk, Ari Cohen, Tim Post
Producers: Sofia Coppola, Lorenzo Mieli, Youree Henley
Executive producers: Priscilla Presley, Roman Coppola, Fred Roos, Chris Hatcher
Director of photography: Philippe Le Sourd
Production design: Tamara Deverell
Costume design: Stacey Battat
Editing: Sarah Flack
Music: Phoenix
Sound: Ryan Joe Allam, sound editor
Production companies: A24, American Zoetrope, The Apartment
In English
113 minutes