The movie opens up with a shot of Priscilla’s perfectly polished feet, her red toes contrasting the pink shaggy carpet while a cover of “Baby I Love You” by The Ramones plays in the background. Shots of her pastel pink makeup products and red lipstick stains are shown. Often described as “fragrant,” the pastel color scheme in the introduction is a major giveaway that this is directed by Sofia Coppola.

Coppola’s latest film, “Priscilla,” depicts the tumultuous and morally questionable relationship between Elvis and Priscilla Presley. Many movies about Elvis Presley, including 2022 Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” focused on Elvis himself, practically making Priscilla a background character. Coppola’s biopic focuses on Priscilla and her struggles during their relationship. It is based on Priscilla Presley’s novel, “Elvis and Me,” and gives the story a new perspective instead of the glamorous story that audiences are used to.

For decades, Priscilla would casually bring up how Elvis would control her life, even down to her hair and makeup. It paints a vibrant picture of what their relationship was like, especially since Priscilla herself was involved in making the film. 

Before I saw the film, I was indifferent about how Jacob Elordi would play Elvis. Him being an Australian with gapped teeth is possibly the complete opposite of who Elvis was, but I also knew he was typically typecast as a man with anger issues. 

I was surprised at how good the acting was overall in this movie. The movie has scenes where Elvis would be uncontrollable with anger and take it out on Priscilla. Elordi’s anger is very convincing, and I think he is charming enough to the point where he almost seems redeemable, in a sick and accurate way. Cailee Spaney gives a heartbreaking performance as Priscilla. We see her as the young girl she was, always soft-spoken and calm, while also dealing with traumatic abuse. 

The movie was visually beautiful. The costumes, colors and shots were breathtaking. Coppola does an amazing job with showing the fame and fortune of Elvis, with his gluttonous consumption of food in his bed and lavish visits to the casino. The costumes were very accurate to the time period and also used to symbolize change. Priscilla started off as innocent and modest, wearing pink and muted colors, but slowly started wearing mature blue clothes to please Elvis. Her virgin short hair and bare face slowly became more mature, with jet black eyeliner to match with her dyed black hair. As she and Elvis grew further apart, Priscilla went back to her natural look, symbolizing her detachment from Elvis.

While the aesthetics of the movie were incredible, I felt like the storyline was lacking. Overall, it’s pretty choppy once Priscilla moves into Graceland. We don’t really get to know who she is as a person, rather we see her as a victim and nothing more than that. We don’t see her develop, and the movie jumps to a point in her life where she is ready to leave the toxic relationship. We don’t see who she is outside of Elvis either, whether that was purposeful or not. I loved the visual aspect of the movie, but I felt like that was the only thing that was focused on. The rest felt rushed and overlooked.