150 Word Review: 'Priscilla' (2023)
Heartbreak hotel
Sofia Coppola isn't interested in Elvis Presley, the doomed rock-and-roll superstar. In Priscilla, Elvis is a dragon sitting on his treasure, breathing fire, safe in his cave. His celebrity clamors in the distance.
The King is also a predator in director Coppola's biopic, a candy-colored fairy tale about a girl who suddenly realizes she's a prisoner, not a princess. Priscilla is at its best when it's not concerned with history or gossip. This is a movie about a child bride. Elvis met his future wife when she was 14 years old. Their romance is a slow-motion kidnapping. It's intoxicating at first but quickly turns toxic.
Cailee Spaeny is tender and tough as the title character, a damsel who rescues herself. The attraction between Priscilla and Jacob Elordi's volatile, pill-popping Elvis is palpable. Coppola slyly dramatizes two truths—Priscilla fell deeply in love, and Elvis knew precisely what he was doing.
That last line says it all.
I have a writer friend obsessed with Elvis. She wrote this book about him.
https://www.amazon.com/Baby-Lets-Play-House-Presley/dp/0061699853/ref=asc_df_0061699853/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312021252609&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13821118116800479824&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9060327&hvtargid=pla-565934934375&psc=1&mcid=a95331ac005933dfa3bfa02100562526&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIld3w-8qjgwMVPIJaBR2WswFSEAQYBCABEgJaqPD_BwE
Almost made the New York Times Best Seller List. It also describes what happened to Pricilla. She knew Colonel Tom Parker and got most of the information for her book from him.
Might watch the movie but I probably won’t.