Where I Watched It: Digital Copy

English Audio Description Provided By: Deluxe

Narrated By: Laura Post

Cast: Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi

Written and Directed By: Sofia Coppola

There’s somewhat of a theme that runs in Sofia Coppola’s films often about young women, isolation, and hotels. Her latest entry, Priscilla is being hailed by some as her best work since lost In Translation, but she hasn’t really gone anywhere. She’s been making movies, and some of them have been quite good. Priscilla is just another reminder that Coppola is an underrated filmmaker who is still at the top of her game.

Here, she takes the story of how a young Priscilla (Spaeny) became Mrs. Elvis Presley, and navigating a rather complicated relationship that is sure to push the buttons of some Elvis fans. Last years Elvis biopic was much more complimentary, while Coppola’s film seems to hold Elvis (Elordi) to the fire. No one can say this is some radical take, like last year’s Blonde, because the ex-wife is front and center as producer.

Coppola loves to use the interiors, almost to remind you that Priscilla was a little like a caged bird, never really allowed to go out and do much. The film starts with her being a 14 year old on an Army base in Germany, doing her schoolwork when her life is changed by meeting the already famous Elvis. Elvis recognizes her age, but still begins to court her, ever so carefully. Some today use the term “grooming”, and I wouldn’t disagree. After all, Priscilla Presley is a producer, so if she wanted to tell a different story, she would have had Sofia dodge a sensitive topic.

But as the relationship pushes further, eventually she ends up being his wife, and living at Graceland. But that is really all she gets to do, is watch Elvis live his life while she’s left by herself at home. She is constantly watched and guarded, and has very little life of her own. And if that wasn’t enough, we also see that Elvis is prone to violent outbursts and mood swings. He also offers her some pills throughout the film, which she takes just assuming Elvis knows best.

Really, while Cailee Spaeny has been getting the bulk of the praise for this film, it was Jacob Elordi’s performance as Presley that really took me by surprise. After seeing Austin Butler go almost full method, I thought Elordi brought even more complicated layers to Elvis, as he is almost exclusively needed in intimate scenes, and less so as a performing version of Elvis. Spaeny is also trapped in a rather thankless role. Coppola’s sound design really captures just how quietly Spaeny can speak, although it never feels like she’s doing an impersonation, but rather it’s a direct reflection of how much oxygen her husband consumes, and how her light is consistently dimming. Spaeny plays Priscilla is lovestruck to an extreme fault, as the audience can tell this is not a healthy relationship, even if we didn’t know who these two were. Truly, it’s a daring piece of cinema from Coppola, and she captures it so well.

What I wish we could find a way of mentioning are some really specific choices that help round out the intentionality of a film. For example, Spaeny is in almost every frame of this film, and the camera focuses on her. There are scenes where she is talking with Elvis, but he is sometimes obscured, or slightly out of frame, because Coppola is holding on Spaeny and using her emoting to carry the film. If we took the audio description at face value, it would seem these two are likely in shots that are more typical, keeping both in frame, and balancing the conversation. But Elordi often does his best work while Spaeny is controlling the frame, holding us with her watery eyed response to the man she loves.

Other than not being able to convey the choices made by the director, the description does a fine job of keeping us appraised of the general action. Spaeny’s performance is often minimalistic, so following her facial expressions helps to round out the performance she’s bringing to life.

This is up there for me in terms of films of the year, and it was one I wasn’t looking forward to. Another Elvis movie? I wasn’t sure we needed that. However, this is the better film, because it strips away the glitz and the glamor, and it asks the hard questions about the kind of people we elevate to celebrity status, and just how they are able to cope mentally with superstardom. there are so many takeaways from Priscilla, but I do think the biggest should be that Sofia Coppola is still at the top of her game, and if we can get the audio description to capture more of her directorial choices, her films won’t get lost in translation.

Final Grade: A