Priscilla (2023)

A movie that tackles a cultural icon from an unusual perspective, Priscilla follows the relationship between its titular character and Elvis Presley, but only tells her side of the story...

At just fourteen years old, Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) struggles to relate to her fellow students in the German school where her father is stationed during the Second World War. Like many American teenagers, she is enamored of the singing sensation Elvis, so when a friend of his invites her to his house on a Friday night, she begs her parents to let her attend. Though shocked to find out her age, Elvis (Jacob Elordi) takes an instant shine to her, and enjoys talking to her. Against her parents’ better judgment, he invites her over every weekend for conversation. Priscilla falls hard and fast in love, but Elvis doesn’t touch her in a romantic sense; he just wants her nearby, and though her emotions and her body are “on fire,” he warns her that’s a good way to get burned, and he wants to wait until “it’s the right time.”

Before long, Elvis returns to the States, and Priscilla pines for him from afar, reading up on his romantic flings in popular teen magazines. She has almost given up on him when Elvis calls and begs her parents to let her finish her education in the States, at Graceland, under the watchful eye of his grandmother. Once she arrives, she’s warned, “You can’t have girls over from school; no strangers at Graceland.” And thus begins a strangely lonely life of Pricsilla being the apple of Elvis’ eye in his presence, and lonely in his absence.

Based on Priscilla Presleys’ memoirs, and famous for being a movie their daughter Lisa Marie protested before her death (she thought it would slander her father, and presented him unfairly), Priscilla is an unusual look at Elvis, from an entirely female perspective. The film makes it clear this is her story; she is at the center of its focus and at times, we don’t even get close-ups of other characters whenever she is lost in thought. It also tackles the uncomfortable truth that Priscilla was fourteen when she first started “seeing” Elvis, and even though they didn’t consummate the relationship fully until after they got married a few years later, she is still “just a kid.” Elvis knows it; he remarks on it (“why, you’re just a baby!”); his friends know it, his companions know it (“She’s sooo young!”). And although it doesn’t come right out and say it, it suggests Elvis “grooms” Priscilla, by telling her what to wear, and how to do her hair (she changes her whole appearance, and sends back dresses he doesn’t like), isolating her from her peer group, and occasionally bursting into violence. He smacks her in the middle of a pillow fight once, and throws a chair at the wall beside her head another time. I can see why Lisa Marie hated the script, because it doesn't paint Elvis in a good light at all.

The storyline never tells us what is up with his weird relationship with Priscilla, but it relates back to the Madonna/Wore complex. Elvis idolized and sexually desired an untouchable virgin, but once he "violated her" with sex and gave birth to their daughter, he lost all his sexual desire for her. Elvis could not reconcile his desire and his love of her purity with seeing her now as a mother figure. It's the stuff a psychologist would love to dig into, but the movie doesn't explain it. The story omits certain parts of the truth—it spends plenty of time wondering if Elvis is cheating on Priscilla with his Hollywood costars, but doesn’t reveal Priscilla’s own affairs in his absence. And it has a rather abrupt ending. It’s also quite slow and ponderous; there’s a lot that isn’t happening in Priscilla’s life, and the film lingers on it, to remind us of how bored and lonely she is. It shines the best in its first hour, as it focuses on the excited flutter within its pretty, young heroine, as she gets to know a musical icon and falls in love. Then it drags a little, since it spends the first hour on their teen romance (he’s in his 20s), and the second covers about twelve years. The costumes and hair are fantastic, as is the soundtrack even though it doesn’t include any Elvis songs. The cast is also quite good, although Elordi lacks the charisma that Autstin Butler put into the Elvis biopic. Spaeny is good as Priscilla, but so much of her performance is ‘quiet and understated,’ you never quite know what she is thinking. The build up to her leaving Elvis is also a bit abrupt; I did not fully understand why she left their marriage, other than that she had begun to have her own friends at the time. It’s a movie to make you think, but it’s not always feel-good. It’s worth a watch and doesn't earn it's R-rating except for the uppers and downers (drugs) both of them swallow constantly.

Sexual Content:

Elvis and Priscilla get close to having sex several times (they start making out) but he stops her each time, and warns her about igniting passions or needing to be pure. She asks him if he sleeps with other girls and he admits that yes, but they were older; much is made of her age (14) when they start seeing each other, even though they don't consummate their love until they get married. Priscilla gets frustrated by this and asks "What about MY needs?" She wears skimpy outfits, tousles with him in bed, etc., then complains that they never sleep together after she had the baby (he doesn't want to hurt her). Elvis gets drunk and tries to force her into a sexual situation one night in Vegas; he gets on top of her and tells her he'll make love to her like a real man, but she protests and he eventually storms away. Elvis tells Priscilla that they can't have sex, but they can do everything else.

Violence:

Elvis hits her in the face with a pillow during a pillow fight hard enough to knock her to the floor, after he gets angry at her. When he doesn't like what she says about his new music, he throws a chair at the wall beside her head. He screams at her and tells her to get out and that he'll pack for her, then throws her suitcase on the floor and starts hurling her clothes into it, as she sobs.

Language:

Several f-words. Elvis also uses GD about a dozen times.