Priscilla is the adaption of Priscilla Presley’s biography “Elvis and Me”, directed and written by Sophia Copella. Starring Caliee Spaeny as the titular Priscilla and Jacob Elordi as Elvis, Priscilla is a beautifully designed movie, truly powered by its lead performers.
Starting with Spaeny, she was incredible. It was insane to watch her mature throughout the movie, both emotionally and physically. She begins the movie in 9th grade and by the end, she is believably in her 30s, all with simple makeup and hairstyling changes. Outside of appearance, the way she goes from starstruck (yet composed) from even being in the same room as Elvis to standing up to him and leaving their marriage, she mastered the full range of emotions.
Her performance made me laugh, but also feel terrible. For starters, Elvis and Priscilla’s relationship started when she was in the 9th grade, and he was considerably older. Credit to the hair and makeup team but they made Spaeny look super young, and it made my skin crawl. Her mannerisms echoed that, as she never truly seemed to understand the magnitude of her situation. There are times I truly felt awful for her, like when she wanted to play outside with her dog but was told she couldn’t, or when she was presented with the mounting evidence that Elvis was being unfaithful to her. Her performance had me all the way invested even knowing that these events were based on her real life, but I kept rooting for Priscilla.
Jacob Elordi was also fantastic. A lot of people want to clown Austin Butler for doing the absolute most to become Elvis while Elordi just watched some Lilo and Stitch and ate some bacon. Both Elvis performances were great: Butler nailed the character/enigma that was Elvis while I think Elordi gave a much more grounded, personal performance. He was able to channel more of the abusive side, and his massive frame, compared to Spaeny, made him terrifying. He was unpredictable. One second, he was in love with Priscilla and the next he was throwing a chair at her head.
His Elvis wasn’t as flashy or as emphatic as we saw last year in Austin Butler’s Elvis, but that is more than ok in this movie. He was remarkable at showing Elvis’s soft side and he made it believable that he did care for Priscilla. But then the switch flipped, and he became a monster on all scales. He would be abusive and unfaithful, but the way he would subtly gaslight and manipulate her made my blood boil in a good way.
The design of Priscilla was fascinating to me. It felt like every so often the movie would fade to black, sort of like a made-for-TV movie would incorporate commercials. However, this felt more deliberate and artistic. I say dreamlike because, in my personal experience, the fades felt like chapters or segments closing and new ones starting within my dreams. I think it aligns with the movie as it starts with the young Priscilla meeting the most popular man in the world, making it like a fairytale. But it ends as a nightmare as the emotional abuse and gaslighting lead her to accept that this can no longer be her life and she leaves.
The ending was very abrupt. At the time, my audience and I couldn’t believe it was over. I saw multiple people turn to the person next to them and ask if that was it. And while I still think it was abrupt, I do now think it perfectly ended the dream. As it ends, it’s like waking up back to reality, which is often quick and turbulent. I could be completely off base with what Sofia Coppola envisioned but that’s at least how I interpreted it.
Final Thoughts
As I walked out of my theater, I would have given Priscilla a 3.5 out of 5, mostly because of how the ending left me feeling. But now that it’s been a couple of days and I’ve gotten to stew on it, I think I appreciate it more. The movie is a beautiful retelling of Priscilla Presley’s story, led by two out-of-the-park performances by Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi. And, now that the strikes are over, I feel much better saying that this is a movie worth seeing in theaters.
