Priscilla

Synopsis:  Priscilla’s account of her life with former husband, 1950’s superstar singer Elvis Presley. (In theaters as of November 2023)

Imagine having a fourteen-year-old daughter who wants to date Harry Styles. Not uncommon, I’d guess. Okay, now imagine said superstar singer actually wants to date your daughter. You’d say no, right?

Well, here’s a story that begins with parents who said alright, albeit reluctantly. Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla is based on Priscilla Beaulieu Presley’s book Elvis and Me. Back in 1959, Priscilla was a fourteen-year-old living in Germany, where her stepfather was stationed with the U.S. Army. Mega pop star Elvis Presley was stationed there too. One day, a serviceman approaches her at a diner and asks if she wants to go to a party that Elvis will be at; she says she needs to ask her parents. They say no, but then they talk to the serviceman who assures them that she’ll be chaperoned. He explains that Elvis just misses talking to Americans. Female high school students, for sure. Keep in mind that Elvis is twenty-four-years old.

Not surprisingly, when Priscilla gets to the house party, she’s the only non-adult there. When Elvis approaches her to talk, she seems to be in a daze. He instructs the girl to meet him in an empty room. K, so where’s her chaperone? Maybe Elvis is her chaperone. Not surprisingly, they have nothing in common, but the teen is complaisant and makes a good audience for Elvis’ stories about Graceland and his mama.

Priscilla is sensitively portrayed by Cailee Spaeny as ‘Cilla (one of Elvis’ nicknames for her) from a teen through her marriage to Elvis, until –decades old spoiler alert — their split in 1972, when she is twenty-seven-years-old. Arguably, a better age to get married vs getting out of a thirteen-year romance.

Jacob Elordi is Elvis. The Australian actor sounds just like him, quite uncanny.  Although he doesn’t look much like the King, he is handsome. And when Priscilla rushes to meet him, waiting outside her house, leaning against his car, the dude does look pretty swoon-worthy. In today’s terms, think of Harry Styles leaning against an electric car, maybe dressed in a herringbone jumpsuit, with his curls all a-tossled. Sigh…

Elvis meets the parents and says his intentions are honorable, ie., he won’t have sex with her. Her non-Elvis time is spent thinking of Elvis. At school, she artistically writes his name in her notebooks. At home, she waits for his calls. It’s hard to blame the young teen: it’s like her fanfiction fantasies have come to life.

When Elvis is done with his service and heads back to the U.S. Priscilla doesn’t hear from him. Her mom pleads with her to move on. Brnnng, brnng… It’s Elvis calling. He wants to bring Priscilla to Graceland for a visit, assuring her parents that she’ll be chaperoned by his father and grandma. Once she gets there, Elvis whisks her off to Vegas. As you can imagine, she does not want to go back to Germany and her dull life there. Imagine if you were living it up in Ibiza with Harry Styles, would you want to go back to your dreary day-to-day? I mean you don’t even have to have a crush on him, everyone’s answer would still be staying on holiday with Harry.

Elvis does manage to get her on a plane home. After all, he has cheesy movies to make and starlets to bed. Before long, Elvis floats a plan to her parents that would have her finishing her last year of high school in Memphis, with their daughter living at Graceland and attending a Catholic girls’ school. His dad would be her guardian while she’s stateside. I mean, have her parents even met the dad? How do they know he’s not a creeper?! Priscilla listens in on her parents’ intense convo where they alternate between ‘no’ and confronting the truth that they’ll be forever blamed by their teen if they don’t let her go. Off to live with Elvis…

Wow, checking out the glossy, tacky decor at Graceland is a treat. Lots of shimmering glass and crystal, plush shag carpets and porcelain statuary stationed about the rooms. Now Little One (an Elvis nickname for her–ick), can devote herself to Elvis. And that’s what Elvis expects.

Priscilla is soon isolated and loses her privacy at the same time. Elvis’ croneys are always hanging around. Elvis’ bio info refers to these hangers on as the Memphis Mafia. They seem to be guys whose only job is to be Elvis’ yes-men, laughing at his jokes and indulging his whims. Priscilla joins the group as they target shoot outdoors, race golf carts, light heaps of fireworks and bulldoze an old house. Isn’t this how everybody spends their downtime?

While Elvis wants Priscilla available as his live-in doll, she needs to go to classes and study. Nobody wants to be her friend at school, seeing her as an oddity. And her study sessions at home are interrupted by the loud partying of Elvis and his croneys that ring through the house. In a phone conversation when Elvis is out-of-town, the teen says she’d like to work at a boutique after school. Elvis nixes the idea. She needs to be available when he calls. Geez… Could you imagine Harry Styles demanding something like this?!

One of the areas of Priscilla’s life that Elvis takes over is in what she wears. He brings her out to shop and chooses what she wears. When she models a brown printed gown, he says, no. No prints. And no brown; it reminds him of the army. She voices that the dresses he’s chosen may be too sophisticated for her. He ignores her. He gets excited about his self-appointed stylist role and tells the girl she should have her hair dyed black; just like him. And her hair needs to be bigger and faker and more eye makeup too! Before you know it, she’s wearing the highest hair the world has ever seen, kept to its towering heights by some sort of industrial strength hairspray. And she applies rows of heavy-looking fake eyelashes. Don’t forget the kohl black eyeliner for a full-on Cleopatra look that you can see from the moon.

Sometimes Elvis is hard to love. Or to believe that he’s a good boyfriend. He shares his drugs: stimulants (to get up for school) and sedatives for sleep. He banters on the phone with his slimy manager. He gets in bad moods about the “garbage” scripts and music he is sent. Yeah, the stuff seems like it sucked. Still, he yells at Priscilla if she says the “wrong” thing, throwing a chair against a wall when she agrees that the songs he’s sent aren’t catchy.

When Elvis goes to make the movie Viva Las Vegas and has a fling with his co-star Ann Margret, he really doesn’t like it that Priscilla wants to visit the set and interfere with his sex life. Speaking of which, Elvis tells Priscilla that he will decide when they have sex, not her. Elvis isn’t enlightened about the foolishness of gender roles. During a pillow fight with her, he becomes incensed that she is getting too unladylike with her rough pillow flinging.

You can see where all this is headed and want her to hurry up and liberate herself, but not, dear movie goer, before a great scene wherein Elvis leads a Bible Study group. Oh, you didn’t know that he was quite the theologian? That’s because he wasn’t.

At home, Elvis is seated before Priscilla and a gaggle of groupies. He reads from the Bible and the young women present ask him questions. One woman won’t refrain from sexy questioning, asking if Elvis thinks that Jesus was attracted to ‘the woman at the well.’ Self-anointed biblical scholar Reverend Elvis considers the question for a moment and replies that, yes, he thinks Jesus was attracted to her. Note to self: look up this steamy Bible scene.

The foolishness goes on for her, but Priscilla says ‘yes’ when Elvis proposes in 1967. Who knows if Elvis was happy with Priscilla? But he was certainly in the driver’s seat, according to Priscilla Presley’s memoir. The King demands that ‘Cilla share his “interests and philosophies.” And he refuses to have her travel on tour with him. Elvis explains to the new mother that the road is no place for a mother and young’un. Exactly. I mean, he needs room in the tour bus for groupies.

Before I sign off and make myself Elvis’ fave sammie, griddled peanut butter and banana, a couple of notes…  1) Priscilla Presley is one of the producers, so she comes off as a saint. Elvis? Not so much; more an entitled man who never grew up due to all the perks of fame. Likewise, director Sofia Coppola’s film shows how Priscilla’s personal growth was stunted by being the superstar’s girlfriend from the age of fourteen.  Harry Styles wouldn’t do this to anyone, for sure.

2)  Elvis Presley Enterprises would not approve the use of Elvis’ music for the film. All of the other music we hear just emphasizes that we aren’t hearing Elvis. Unlike, Baz Luhrman’s Elvis, we don’t get to see any powerhouse performances or feel the lure of his songs. Then again, we don’t have to put up with Tom Hanks as Elvis’ manager, the Colonel (who never was a colonel, incidentally.)

P.S. The one piece of music that really works is Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” The best version because it’s singer-songwriter Dolly doing the singing.

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade:  B

Cut to the Chase: Strong lead performances. Coppola’s film gives us an alluring, yet icky, look into Priscilla & Elvis’ lifestyle.

Humor Highlight: Elvis leading a bible study group.