Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla does a fantastic job on showing the media the dark side of Elvis. The movie stars Jacob Elordi as Elvis Presley, and Cailey Spainey as his wife Priscilla Presley. This movie is a telling of Pricilla Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me and she was directly involved in the movie allowing it to accurately portray her story. Presley was an executive producer of the movie and Cailey Spainey often spoke with Presley in order to get into the mindset she needed to portray her role. 

Director Sofia Coppola is known for portraying stories through the eyes of girlhood. With “girlhood” films like The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette under her belt, Coppola has made a large name for herself. Her film Priscilla tells the story of Priscilla’s life and her perspective during her relationship with Elvis. Coppola puts you in a trance with the use of a pastel color scheme, grainy film montages, and the aesthetic of the 1960s. Jacob Elordi shows Elvis as bigger-than-life and Cailee Spainey does an excellent job of portraying the innocent and delicate essence of Priscilla. 

Presley herself was astonished at how well Elordi portrayed Elvis and how he picked up Elvis’ voice and mannerisms perfectly. Coppola does not shy away from the obvious power dynamic between the two during their relationship. From Elvis pursuing Priscilla when she was only 14 years old, to controlling what she wears and how she looks. We are able to see the effects that had on Priscilla as a young girl and how it continued to affect her through her life. Isolation is a lingering feeling throughout the entire film due to a lack of heavy dialogue. This depicts the loneliness Priscilla felt during her time with Elvis. Coppola's distinctive style of filmmaking is shown in all of its glory. 

The first half of the film has a faster pace with the budding romance between Elvis and Priscilla. One scene that stands out the most is the depressive state that Priscilla falls into after Elvis returns to the United States and leaves her alone in Germany. This shows the emotional manipulation that had been occurring and how Priscilla’s childhood was being stripped away from her. As the movie progresses, the pace slows down. We see Priscilla grow bored while Elvis was touring the world and her isolation inside of their home. However, the pace fits the mood for this section of the film, as well as accurately portraying Priscilla’s feelings during that time. Another one of our favorite scenes is when Priscilla was dressing up in different outfits and Elvis was taking pictures of her on his camera. However, the scene ends with him hitting her violently with a pillow. This shows how quickly Elvis’ mood could change and how you could never predict what he was going to do next. 

The movie becomes unstable at the end as the film jumps from scene to scene. The entire marriage to pregnancy to divorce process felt underdeveloped in comparison to the rest of the film due to dramatic jumps in the timeline. Priscilla is a powerhouse of a film that allows the media to learn Priscilla’s perspective of their relationship and Elvis’ dark side. Overall we rate the film a four out of five and think it will become a future cult classic due to its creative cinematography and the message being conveyed.