Jailhouse shock
PRISCILLA Cert 15★★★★ In cinemas now
There are two sides to every love story. In 2022, Moulin Rouge’s circus ringmaster Baz Luhrmann left audiences all shook up with his boisterous biopic of Elvis Presley.
Energetically staged musical sequences and a virtuoso lead performance from Austin Butler razzle-dazzled at the expense of quality screen time to dissect the toxic romance of Elvis and ingenue Priscilla Beaulieu, who was 14 when the couple met.
Lost In Translation writer-director Sofia Coppola revisits seduction across an age divide in her provocative drama Priscilla, which refuses to polish the jagged edges of one of the most high-profile celebrity marriages of the 1960s.
Glimpsed via 21st-century eyes, Elvis and Priscilla’s courtship is unsettling and suspicious minds will find evidence here of manipulation and grooming from the moment the pair first kiss and he pulls away, whispering: “It’s time for you to go home, little one.”
Discomfort is magnified by a pronounced 41cm height difference between lead stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi. He towers over her, making her seem doll-like and easily coerced. “When I call you, I need you to be here for me, baby,” Elvis coos to Priscilla and she ultimately submits.
Adapted from the memoir Elvis And Me, Coppola’s picture is a cautionary tale about the intoxicating allure of celebrity, glimpsed through Priscilla’s heavily mascara’ed eyes. The script doesn’t depict the young bride as a saint – she is complicit in her corruption and locks herself in a lavishly furnished cage at Graceland while Elvis tours and makes films.
Spaeny is mesmerising, elegantly navigating an obstaclestrewn path from adolescence to womanhood via prescription medication abuse and psychological torment. Elordi’s embodiment of Elvis is less eye-catching than Butler but he paints with darker hues, enacting violent outbursts and attempted sexual assault.
Projected through Coppola’s lens, he’s a charming devil in disguise.
‘‘ The young bride is not depicted as a saint... she is complicit in her corruption