On Nov. 3, the movie “Priscilla” was released in theaters. Directed by Sofia Coppola, “Priscilla” is a movie about Priscilla Presley and her life as she met Elvis Presley, and what it was like to be with the super rockstar. It is loosely based on the 1985 memoir “Elvis and Me.”
We start the movie in 1949, where she meets Elvis for the first time at the age of 14. The movie follows their courtship and their following marriage, during the time Priscilla found herself isolated and distressed by Elvis’s substance abuse and infidelities up until their separation in 1973.
Priscilla Presley was played by Cailee Spaeny. In my opinion, she did a lovely job. Her performance as Priscilla was phenomenal. I could really feel the emotion she was going through and it was amazing to see her on screen. Her hair and makeup was also extremely iconic as it looks exactly like how Priscilla Presley herself would have done it back in 1959 when they first met. Elvis, played by Jacob Elordi, also did an astounding job. Many people online were comparing his performance to that of Austin Butler who played Elvis in the “Elvis” movie.
For me, I agree that Elordi did a bit better than Butler. With Elordi, I felt like you could really see the raw emotion and I felt like this was definitely more Elvis like. No hate to Butler as their performances were for two completely different movies and were two different sides of Elvis. Butler was definitely better with the more performance-like Elvis, like how he would have done his concerts, while Elordi was more everyday-like Elvis, which is why I think people liked it more as they could see what Elvis was like in his everyday life with his wife, Priscilla.
One of my personal favorite scenes is where Priscilla and Elvis are getting married. The pictures they show us in the movie looks almost identical to that of the real Priscilla and Elvis. The scene also shows the emotions of the two and how they feel. I think the makeup and the costumes for the scene are absolutely amazing. The team definitely tried to make it as identical as possible to the real versions.
If I had to give it a rating, it would definitely be a 8/10. Sadly, I did knock it a point as it is an R rated movie and it has some themes of abuse & drugs that may be triggering for some. Other than that, the movie was phenomenal. I remember walking out of the theater and being like “Wow.” The movie also did a fantastic job with the costumes and makeup, it is perfect all the way to the tiny details. The movie had great reviews from both critics and the public, a lot of people say they felt bad for Priscilla and never knew what she went through until seeing this movie. If you like movies about late celebrities, movies made by the studio A24, and movies directed by Sofia Coppola, I would definitely recommend this.
