“Do you like Elvis Presley?” “Of course. Who doesn’t?”
✭✭✭✭ (4 stars out of 5) – Priscilla (2023)
Once again, the story of the famed Hollywood actor and singer Elvis Presley, has hit the big screen. After Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis (2022)” starring Austin Butler made a new generation interested in the star, another movie centered around his life was bound to happen. Although that film did focus partly on Elvis Presley and how he achieved his life of fame, this film gives us a much broader perspective through the eyes of his wife, Priscilla Presley. The movie follows Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny), a young teenage girl living with her family in West Germany. Priscilla lives her life nonchalantly, reading books and writing as an adolescent does. She then stumbles upon Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi) at a party where they appear to fall in love with each other at first sight. Through the various sequences throughout the film, the viewer starts to realize that the glamorous life in which Priscilla has pictured for herself is only a melancholy facade.
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When I first saw the trailer for this film and saw that it was directed by Sofia Coppola, director of “The Virgin Suicides (1999), Marie Antoinette (2006) & The Bling Ring (2013)”, I instantly knew that she was going to be able to capture the right cinematography for the tone of this film. As aforementioned, she did an outstanding job at the color scheme cinematography for this film. But more importantly, her ability of being able to tell the story of Priscilla via the female perspective made the movie brand new. You could really see how actress Cailee Spaeny put herself in the shoes of Priscilla, which was demonstrated through the various scenes of mental and emotional distress. We see that even though she portrays a much older presence as Mrs. Presley, she did an astounding job of demonstrating the glimpse of the innocent young girl that was taken away by Elvis but still lives inside Priscilla, both mentally and emotionally. In addition, even though Jacob Elordi was able to replicate the physical appearance of Elvis in this film. I would personally have to argue & say that Austin Butler did a much better job of portraying the accent in the 2022 film compared to Jacob. Overall, I would recommend this film to anyone who is interested in mockumentary style films. Since this film touches upon mature themes throughout the film, I would say that this film is for the mature audience only.
