Priscilla (2023)
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Priscilla Movie Review
Priscilla is a 2023 biographical drama film directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi. It is a very slow, but tender movie.
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“I don’t have a goddamn thing to hide!
You’re just being too goddamn aggressive and demanding!“
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When teenager Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the two start a relationship and the movie tracks her time with him as well as her eventual road to independence. This is yet another Sofia Coppola movie that is very episodic in nature and slowly paced to a fault. Its slice-of-life approach did produce some genuinely moving and memorable moments, but for the most part it led to an overly slim movie that never gained any momentum plotwise.
Priscilla is interestingly devoid of any more dramatic or confrontational sequences. While I did respect this less showy approach that stood in stark contrast to Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Elvis’, it still left me wanting for more. The movie is extremely tender, feminine and elegant, which is something that Coppola does best, but it needed more meat to its rather uneventful and unimpactful story.
Cailee Spaeny delivered a stellar performance. The movie’s subdued approach meant that the actress needed to tell Priscilla’s story in a more subtle manner, which she managed to do as she sold her emotions and her thoughts with very little. Spaeny was entirely believable and very memorable in the role and she deserves to get more big roles in the future off of this great turn.
Another standout is Jacob Elordi, who was much more subtle and believable as Elvis than Austin Butler ever was in his buffoonish and bombastic performance. Elordi and Spaeny got some solid chemistry and their scenes together, though sparse, were quite charming. The movie explored this relationship so well while also showcasing how problematic Priscilla’s life was without ever vilifying Elvis himself, which made for a pleasingly nuanced take on this story.
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The technical aspects are the highlights of Priscilla – the production design is excellent, the costume design is superb and the attention to detail is evident throughout. The score is pretty good too with some songs well chosen for their scenes, but the lack of bigger Elvis hits was problematic in a movie that stars him. The pacing is slow, but at least the dialogue is pretty good, though minimal as the entire movie is extremely minimalistic.
Priscilla is your standard Sofia Coppola movie – it is extremely slow in its pace and quite episodic and repetitive in its structure, but it is tender, elegant and very well made across the board. Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi were both well cast and effective in their roles while that central relationship was also well explored. This is a slice-of-life story for better and for worse – one that lacked momentum, but had a lot of charm nonetheless.
My Rating – 3.5
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