movie evaluation: Teen desires and adult nightmares in Sofia Coppola’s ‘Priscilla’

Dreamily observing at the album covers of Elvis Presley turned into no longer, statistically speaking, a infrequent addiction amongst American teen ladies in the late Fifties and early '60s.

but for Priscilla Beaulieu, teenage fantasy grew to be a strange and surreal truth. Sofia Coppola's "Priscilla," starring Cailee Spaeny, captures the entire dreaminess, the absurdity and, finally, the nightmare of falling in love with Elvis.

(Philippe Le Sourd/A24 by way of AP)

Priscilla was simply 14 years-historical — a 9th grader — when she first met him. It changed into 1959. She was residing in West Germany, where her Air drive officer stepfather was stationed. The swoony early scenes of Coppola's film find a solitary Priscilla sipping soda in a Navy base diner while Frankie Avalon's "Venus" ("Venus, make her reasonable / a beautiful girl with daylight in her hair") plays around her, as lined by the band Phoenix.

a person methods and asks if she likes Elvis. Of route she does. Would she like to meet him? Um, what? After some negotiations along with her parents, Priscilla is sitting there on the sofa at a small celebration when the King of Rock 'n' Roll, himself (Jacob Elordi), strolls down the stairs. big, massive sigh.

Coppola, the author-director of "The Virgin Suicides," "misplaced in Translation" and "somewhere," has at all times been innately attuned to the forming identities, swelling desires and intimate revelations of younger girls. in the story of Priscilla Presley (the film is in keeping with her 1985 memoir, "Elvis and Me" ), Coppola has found a tale tailored for her delicately perceptive style of filmmaking.

As a movie, "Priscilla" is the diametric contrary of Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis." the place Luhrmann's film became lurid and careening, Coppola's is muted and textured. Her movie is a form of fairy story that turns claustrophobic and cautionary.

"Priscilla" is, at least in the beginning, rather funny. After Priscilla at the start catches Elvis' eye at that party, she's lower back at school studying about the meals groups. How could any person maybe belly that? Or when, after Elvis hasn't known as following his stint within the armed forces, Priscilla's mother asks her if there aren't any boys in faculty she may be attracted to, as an alternative. Priscilla doesn't need to say anything else; just the image of lining up your typical 9th grade boy against Elvis Presley is ample.

Yet their courtship continues in a bit typical style. Elvis, played with comfortable magnetism by using Elordi ("The Kissing sales space," "Saltburn"), is drawn to Priscilla as a result of she reminds him of home; it's clear her purity is a part of her attraction to him. It's a long time earlier than they have intercourse, notwithstanding her youth continues to be tacitly difficult. "Wow, she's young," says one woman staring at Elvis lead Priscilla upstairs. "Like a little woman."

Their life collectively is at the beginning sweet if deranged. Priscilla drifts via a dream world notwithstanding Elvis' extremes are evident to us. His bedroom in Graceland is comically gaudy. "I got this for you," we hear Elvis say kindly, before a handgun is passed over.

No Presley songs play in "Priscilla." (whereas Priscilla Presley is an government producer, the Elvis estate didn't take part in the film.) however it does share a telling track ( Carl Orff's "Gassenhauer" ) with Terence Malick's "Badlands," one more movie about an underage teen lady (Sissy Spacek) who throws her life in with a charismatic drifter with matinee-idol appears (Martin Sheen).

And like they do for Holly in "Badlands," issues flip increasingly dark for Priscilla. Elvis treats her like a doll he maintains at home while he goes out and in. "It's either me or a career, baby," he tells her. Coppola, who dedicates the movie to her mom, Eleanor Coppola, has lengthy specialized in gilded cages ("Marie Antoinette," "The Bling Ring"). Graceland turns out to be a jail to Priscilla.

(Sabrina Lantos/A24 by way of AP)

There aren't many false notes in Coppola's richly layered film, handsomely shot by means of Philippe Le Sourd, with luxurious production design from Tamara Deverell and first-rate, toned-down costumes by Stacey Battat.

however "Priscilla" fades where "Elvis" found its footing. When Presley's downturn quickens in Las Vegas, Luhrmann's movie swelled with tragedy. in the same time duration here, Priscilla awakens. Yet it feels underdeveloped, coming too straight away, in a unexpected rush — albeit a fantastic rush, with Dolly Parton taking part in.

a relentless during, though, is Spaeny. this is a deft step forward performance completely poised between youthful fable and adult truth.

"Priscilla," an A24 unencumber, is rated R with the aid of the movement picture association for drug use and a few language. working time: 113 minutes. Three stars out of four.