Priscilla is an intoxicating deconstruction of the Elvis myth

The mythology surrounding Elvis Presley has captivated culture for decades, and in Sofia Coppola’s new film Priscilla, she examines what it’s like to be the wife of the world’s most famous man. 

Cailee Spaney delivers a career-making performance as Priscilla Presley, as Coppola yet again discovers a young up-and-coming star and gives them their defining role. 

Spaney plays Priscilla from her teenage years all the way up to adulthood, and the performance (as well as the make-up and costume design) is the highlight of the film.

Spaney has a timeless feel to her and feels like she could have stepped out of a portal from the 1950s to star in this film.

Coppola’s films can be defined as examinations of women rebelling against the cultural norms expected of them, and Priscilla is the best distillation of her thesis statement yet.

Priscilla is of a piece with Marie Antoinette or The Virgin Suicides, so fans of those films will find a lot to love with this one.

Buz Luhrmann’s epic Elvis film in 2022 showed the razzmatazz and glamour of the Elvis hype machine, but this film shows what happened when the show was over and what went on behind the scenes at Graceland.

There is no crazy Baz Luhrmann split-screen trickery here or Tom Hanks doing a demented Dutch accent, Priscilla is all about the subtleties and nuance of the Elvis Presley story.

The heart of the film revolves around the relationship between Elvis and Priscilla, and the film goes to great lengths to emphasise the age gap between them.

The film explicitly spells out to the audience that Elvis was 24 when he met the 14-year-old Priscilla, and indeed the film touches upon the questionable dynamic that was at play.

While it is not the job of a film to browbeat or lecture people, Priscilla lets the audience draw their own conclusions about the age gap.

The most interesting stretch of the film shows Priscilla coming to live with Graceland under the condition she completes her high school education, and one scene shows what exactly a teenage girl does with her day in Graceland.

It is a minor detail, but Coppola dedicates a stretch of the film that any other film would gloss over, and it turns out there isn’t a whole lot to do at Graceland when the lord of the manor isn’t home.

The gorgeous production design will leave you wanting to book a trip to Graceland.

Coppola’s greatest talent as a director is letting the audience sit in the moment and the frame, and the gorgeous, almost dream-like cinematography goes a long way in sucking the audience in.

Austin Butler’s performance as Elvis is a hard act to follow (and as an aside, Brendan Fraser won the Oscar over Austin Butler, really?) but Jacob Elrodi’s performance is yet another notch on the belt for the Aussie star.

Elrodi is white-hot at the moment, and it is a testament to his acting ability he was the only actor to come out of Saltburn with his dignity intact. 

His performance here is as good as Butler, and in a lot of ways, feels a lot more naturalistic than Butler.

Elrodi is exceptional at building up to an explosion scene, erupting, and then managing to de-escalate it, all the while Spaney looks on as she realises this is not the man she married. 

The film hinges on Spaney and Elrodi’s chemistry together, and the film sizzles when the two are together. 

The legend and lore surrounding Elvis is a part of popular culture, yet Coppola manages to make it feel fresh again by deconstructing it.

The screenplay is based on Priscilla’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, and Priscilla herself serves as an executive producer on the film. 

Film subjects producing their own films is nothing new, Dr Dre and Ice Cube served as producers on Straight Outta Compton, but the criticism levelled at that practice is we are only hearing their side of the story and we are merely seeing what the producers want us to see.

In this context, it is crucial that we hear from Priscilla herself and show her side of the story.

Priscilla is at its best when it holds up a mirror to the image of Elvis the culture has in their minds and tells the audience that the story they’ve known for so long didn’t quite pan out that way.

Being the wife of the most famous person in music history is a fascinating concept for a film to explore, and Coppola does a great job with the concept.

It may have been lonely at the top for Elvis, but it was a hell of a lot lonelier for Priscilla. 

One scene where Priscilla finds out that Elvis was palling around with Ann-Margret on the set of Viva Las Vegas carries a lot of emotional weight because we know that this is the beginning of the end of their relationship. 

We see Elvis’ comeback special and his Vegas residency era as a by-stander; where the Luhrmann film dedicates an entire hour to it, it is a mere sideshow here, and that approach is at the core of the film.

The film posits that being in Elvis’ orbit was like circling a black hole, everything gets sucked in eventually.

Priscilla is a movie of manners and the low-key, understated Coppola approach is the best possible version of this movie.

It could have been easy for a streaming service to make a gaudy The Crown-style Netflix series out of this, but instead, it was lucky enough to get a brilliant director and two even better stars to tell it.