Priscilla

Some super famous celebrities ruining their career over addiction and anger issues. 😟

She is just a teenager, when Elvis entered her life - as young as she was, she must have had hopes, fears and dreams. We learn nothing of those or what else is going on inside of her. She remains the empty piece of paper, the unwritten human being, the entire world assumed she must have been... Unforgivable from a woman's perspective. As other mentioned: the height-difference is off-putting since it's pushing the narrative towards an even bigger difference of power as it might have been in reality, almost scratching the topic of abuse. I'm sure the real Priscilla had dreams and ambitions and was not the flat and willingless object as she's portraited here.

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I saw "Priscilla" yesterday. "Priscilla" is a 2023 American biographical drama film written, directed, and produced by Sofia Coppola, based on the 1985 memoir "Elvis and Me" by Priscilla Presley (who served as an executive producer) and Sandra Harmon. It stars Cailee Spaeny in the titular role and Jacob Elordi as Elvis Presley. I looked forward to seeing this film based on the rave reviews it has received. However, I must say that I was disappointed by the film. Some critics say that the movie was "understated" - that is an understatement! I found it to be tedious and slow. I just couldn't get invested in Cailee Spaeny's performance - it didn't grab me as authentic. She has limited range as actress - which seems to be all the way from A to B. Jacob Elordi is strikingly handsome (as Elvis was) but he doesn't seem right for the role - he is 6' 5" and Elvis was 5' 11"! More importantly, his performance is annoying, especially when he mumbles (of course, he could be a victim of Coppola's script and direction). Speaking of writing and direction, Coppola speeds through parts of Priscilla's life towards the end whereas she spends too much in the initial buildup to the marriage. Therefore, I cannot recommend this film. As Elvis sang - "return to sender". 4/10.

How can they make such an interesting story into such an uniteresting movie? Well, that's a good question. Some of the reasons as follows. No chemistry. No emotions. No sensuality or sex. Nothing interesting happens. No new insights. No real suspense, tension, happiness, joy or emotions. Just actors trying to act without any real feeling getting through to the viewer. And the actor that plays Elvis are to tall for the role. He doesn't come through as someone that millions of girls and guys would love. And what about the music? Just a collection of songs that have no relation to Elvis. Nope, this is just a bland and boring try to tell the Priscilla - Elvis story, without actually telling us more than a short written article could do as good, or bad.

Okay, so that abortion which was Baz Luhrman's Elvis flick didn't kill the king, it took his own wife to put the final nail on the idea that Elvis has not only left the building but they keep flogging him in the grave. The entire thing is one giant uncomfortable groomer flick. Yes, I paid to watch this movie so this site better let me vent on it. Yes, it was the late 50s and he WAS Elvis but the idea that a 14 year old could convince their parents that Elvis's intentions were noble is painful. This is obviously taken from the disgustingly unreliable narrator which is Priscilla herself. Made an executive producer so as to paint this entire budding relationship as wholesome. Was it to make excuses for him? Who knows. It's gross. But that is reality. I do not ever buy this Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla. She looks and sounds like Natalie Portman doing an impression of Priscilla. And Jacob Elordi doesn't embody Elvis in the least. He mumbles here and there. But there was a gravity to the way Elvis conducted himself that seemed to have a deeper presence. No one has captured this yet, and the rest are cheap Vegas imitators. Throw this one on the pile too. This movie glosses over the major moments of Elvis's life which should have notably effected Priscilla. Sure, the movie is named "Priscilla" but what was going on with her life as he was making flicks. If she wasn't watching over her poodle, she was reading articles of Elvis's movie trysts. It is a MASSIVE drag. She...has...no...life! His return to greatness in the early 70s should have held more heft. Instead, it's a quick scene of them watching it on television and getting phone calls (budgetary reasons, perhaps). Coming from someone whose entire life and personality came from Elvis, Priscilla seems to be ungrateful to someone who provided her with this level of stardom. Was it worth it? They do add strange moments of fury from him. Nothing of which I could see as threatening in the least. This is something director Sofia Coppola has a blindspot to. It's okay to show terrible people doing terrible things. And it's okay to show women as less than perfect. Having the real Priscilla be part of the production hogtied you into this sanitized Movie Of The Week dreck. They don't even make Elvis bloated. Are we to assume Priscilla never saw him as a degenerate drug addicted blimp of a man? That she continued to see him in a dreamy light? Give me a break. Sofia Coppola has lived off the name for so long, it's an insult to continue pretending she has the chops Dad or even brother Roman have. Her career predicated on casually selecting story lines no one cares about. I sat through "On The Rocks" and I was cheering for her only to be greatly disappointed there. But here we are with something much more terrible. I think what bothers me most about this is that there isn't anything real juicy that should have come from the real Priscilla's mouth. She chose, and most likely leveraged, Sofia to keep the true dirt to her grave. The timeline on this movie is so wild. And nothing really feels like there's a point. Horrible time wasted.

Priscilla

I enjoyed it. It's an interesting movie that explores the notorious relationship between Priscilla and Elvis with strong directing, good production and strong performances from the cast members. Sofia Coppola is an interesting filmmaker as she has made some great movies in the past like "The Virgin Suicides" and "Lost in Translation". Here, her direction was good as her directing was able to handle the themes, tone and atmosphere pretty well through an honest depiction. Many of the production, costumes and make-up help perfectly capture its time era. The writing, while is predictable due to the narrative being the standard biographical story, remains interesting as it does a pretty good job on exploring the themes of isolation, innocence being robbed, heartbreak, solitude, and stardom. The soundtrack was really good alongside with the camerawork and production design. All of the performances are pretty good as Callie Spaney does a fantastic portrayal of Priscilla and Jacob Elordi also did a pretty good job on his portrayal of Elvis as well. The dialogue between the characters were pretty good although there were certain dialogue moments from Elordi that were a bit muffled. Most of the pacing is good but there were some pacing problems that did drag the movie a little. Especially with the second act as the second act felt a bit lost and some of the color presentations were a bit dull which could have used some improvements. Overall, while not my favorite Sofia Coppola movie, this movie was still an interesting watch.

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.