The Unimpressive Priscilla
Priscilla. A24 (2023).
My new word for when something isn’t good is “Priscilla”.
I hate when I get excited to see a movie and then feel completely disappointed after watching it. Or worse, feeling completely disappointed while watching it. The previews for Sofia Coppola’s latest film Priscilla looked amazing, and I was looking forward to seeing it. On the whole, I like her movies. I think they are always visually appealing, usually have super rad music, and the performances and writing have a mild dramatic flair. I thought that Priscilla would fall into place with the rest of her movies and that I would instantly love it, but that’s not what happened.
I didn’t want to wait until the movie was streaming, so my bff and I hit up the theater when I got off of work a couple of weeks ago. We were both excited to see the movie because we both love Coppola’s films and style. As the movie started, I was ready to be transported back into the late 50s, to witness the controversial and emotional marriage between Elvis and Priscilla Presley, and to see what Coppola’s interpretation would look like.
I would say about 40 minutes in, I realized that it was going to be a dud and the disappointment started to creep in. I was tempted to lean over and ask if my bff was having the same experience, but I decided not to. I kept thinking how lackluster the performances were, how there wasn’t any authentic emotion within the acting, and how understated this whole era of Presley’s life was being portrayed. Even the scenes that were supposed to be dramatic weren’t very attention grabbing; they were underwhelming. I know that Coppola is known for not using high drama in her films, but this story is incredibly dramatic, and it should’ve been reflected as such.
One of the high points were the costumes and sets. The fashion was accurate to pictures and videos of the couple, and the sets were near exact replicas. I will say that there were a handful of interesting and fun scenes, like the time Priscilla and Elvis took LSD together, but that’s about all I can say in terms of elements of the film that were pleasing.
Jacob Elordi played Elvis, and every interviewer talked about how wonderful his Elvis accent was. I even saw an interview with him where he stated that he didn’t really need to try that hard to capture it. The truth is that his accent was just okay. There were scenes where I couldn’t even understand what he was saying. I don’t know if this is because Elordi wanted to emphasize the effect that the drugs Elvis took had on his ability to sound coherent, or if they shoved a handful of marbles in his mouth before some of the scenes. I do remember during one of these scenes whispering, “What the hell did he just say?”
One of Coppola’s signature moves is the music that she chooses for her films. With Priscilla, there is a serious lack of this. I don’t know what she was trying to do by making a very bare bones soundtrack. Maybe this was the feeling she got from the memoir, that despite being with the most well-known rockstar of the time, Priscilla, portrayed by Cailee Spaeny, was mostly subjected to silence since Elvis was gone on tour or making movies for long periods of time during their marriage. Whatever it was that made Coppola choose to not include a ton of music, it was a bad decision.
As for the ending, it was a total letdown. There was hardly any feeling to it; essentially, Spaeny drives away from Graceland in a giant car and that’s it. There wasn’t any sort of overflow of sadness, or anger, or even heartbreak. Even when Spaeny and Elordi were acting out the breakup scene, it was void of any feeling. I was shocked at how downplayed those scenes were.
When the movie ended and the theater lights came back on, I looked at my bff and said, “That wasn’t worth it.” She agreed. We had the same thoughts going on throughout the film as we discussed it on our way back to our cars. She noted the same lack of emotions, the same issues with Elordi’s accent, and the same desire for there to just be more of something, anything in the film that would make it worthwhile.
Most of the reviews for the film have been good; I think there is always a mixed reaction to Coppola’s work. Who knows, maybe I’ll watch it again when it’s streaming and change my mind. All I know is that I was expecting better, but didn’t have those expectations fulfilled.