This new Sofia Coppola (“Lot in translation”) film is a delicate, intimate account from Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me.
Priscilla stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi as the high schooler and rock’n roll superstar draftee who would meet at a soiree in a Wiesbaden, Germany army base.
Here is a ‘limited’ biopic that contrasts will with the recent flashier and trashier Baz Luhrmann extravaganza which stared a wildly charismatic Austin Butler in the title role. Meaning that t’s less in for box-office than for what the distaff vantage point presents moving forward.
Before the need tone more independent a chaste bedroom kiss would get it all started as Coppola unobtrusively fashions a dark, if dreamy-looking fairy tale. The disapproval of Priscilla’s parents an army captain father (Ari Cohen) and mother (Dagmar Dominszyk) would give way to an adoring gentlemanly tutor and their daughter’s wishes leading to a cherished union with a noticeable age difference.
The transition to the lavish Graceland Memphis has all finances covered in a courtship that has an army naif of a brat in a spot that reveals its share of warts (from drug use to mysticism) right up to being trapped in a tower. With the young woman attending Catholic high school and added in succession by her lover b beloved y his hips among many attributes as an icon in the making.
There’s a bittersweet, even-handed feel to it all that may not seem well-rounded enough. Yet, the portraits in Spaeny’s hesitant resolves and acceptance and Elordi’s evolution as a man-child from angry and professionally prolific to apologetic create importance in what can be a perilous mix of first love and fame. Tim Post and Stephanie Moore lend support with the former a stern widower, almost warden of Elvis’ dad.