Title – Priscilla (2023) 

Director – Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) 

Cast – Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi

Plot – An exploration of the relationship between the young Priscilla (Spaeny) and the older already made superstar Elvis Presley (Elordi). 

“Keep the home fires burning”

Review by Eddie on 03/04/2024

An understandably difficult true life romance story to recreate on the big screen due to the glaring age gap and uniqueness of the whole affair that was the famed relationship of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, Sofia Coppola’s stunningly staged but emotionally cold and narratively disjointed adaptation of Priscilla’s own memoirs makes for a frustrating watch, one filled with lots of small wins but too many misses to call the film a success. 

Starting back all the way when the teenage Priscilla Beaulieu first met a far older and already superstar monikered Elvis Presley in Germany during his service in the United States Army, Coppola’s film starts out well enough as a fever dream like experience where a wide-eyed girl is swept up in the presence of a man that was the equivalent of a living breathing God amongst men, with this early stretch of the film feeling almost like a home movie of the late 50’s and early 60’s era in which it takes place in but as things between Priscilla and Elvis ramp up, the film ramps down struggling to hold our attention. 

Falling into what feels like a series of repetitive scenes and random interactions rather than a fluid narrative or an engaging expose, Coppola’s film starts to run out of steam way before the one hour mark and despite a noticeable ramp up in the latter stages to try and compensate and cover a huge period of time in the two lovers lives, Priscilla feels like a wasted opportunity to utilise its two talented leads by never capturing their potential chemistry or gifting them the material that would’ve elevated their strong turns.

A career making turn for lead Cailee Spaeny who is deserving of the attention she garnered for her role her and an unexpectedly strong iteration of Elvis by Australian acting giant Jacob Elordi, who gets stronger and more “Elvis like” as the film draws on, Coppola’s two committed leads both deserved a stronger focussed film that would’ve allowed them to maximise their time in these characters shoes but despite their best attempts, that supposed magical bond of these two famed lovers never comes to great fruition in this cinematic exploration. 

Operating in a rather ho-hum period for a number of years now, sadly Priscilla isn’t the film to get Coppola back on the esteemed ground she once found herself in with her earlier works and while there’s a strong look and feel to this drama there’s something very forgettable about a story that is anything but, for reasons both good and bad. 

Final Say – 

A tricky tale to navigate through that makes a film that is hard to love, Priscilla shows signs of something special but despite the good work from its core duo, Sofia Coppola’s pretty but cold romantic biopic is hard too love. 

2 1/2 lavish wedding cakes out of 5