Midweek Update: The Power of 'Priscilla'

Last year, we got Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. The film cruised to $288 million worldwide and eight Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Part of that is Luhrmann’s flair, and part of it is that people love Elvis Presley. The film is unabashed hero-worship with Elvis as the golden child corrupted by the nefarious Colonel Tom Parker. It’s all entertaining in its very dumb way, but the film also doesn’t pretend you would walk away with a deeper understanding of Presley’s inner life. Even Priscilla Presley is a minor footnote in Elvis’ story to the point of the film glossing over her young age (she was only fourteen when she and Elvis met).

Thankfully, we now have Priscilla, which goes behind the flash to look at the inner life of Priscilla Presley. In some ways, this is familiar territory for writer-director Sofia Coppola, who has chronicled the lonely lives of women who achieve wealth and status but never the thing (whether it’s love or self-actualization) they’re seeking. Some critics are content to write this off as “poor little rich girl,” but I think that’s a glib and shortsighted observation that fails to grasp the consequences of getting what you think you want, or what society tells you to want. Priscilla strips away all of the celebrity to show the deep loneliness of being Mrs. Elvis Presley.

The film follows Priscilla (Cailee Spaeney) from ages 14 to 30, and chronicles her life with Elvis (Jacob Elordi). Elvis is already a massive star when the two meet in Germany where her family and Elvis are stationed, and it’s clear that she’s not only starstruck, but also a little amazed that he would be interested in her. But even before the two meet, we get the sense of how lonely Priscilla’s life is. She doesn’t seem to have friends, and cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd uses low lighting on almost everything as if the world is inherently dim and colorless. The life of an American teenage girl on an army base in Germany is already alienating, and so what Priscilla longs for is connection. She thinks she finds it in Elvis.

Coppola isn’t interested in another Elvis hagiography, but nor is she eager to make him an outright villain. What Coppola seizes on is how both Priscilla and Elvis are essentially children playacting as adults. Elvis’ fame and fortune allow him incredible access and power, but he never seems in control of his own career. His affection for Priscilla seems rooted in a belief of her “innocence” (i.e. virginity), and the film seems to argue that it’s possible she and Elvis only had sex one time during their entire relationship (and we only know that because of their daughter, Lisa Marie). But while Priscilla is eager to have sex with Elvis, he frequently keeps her at arm’s length or he’s outright abusive. Her desires are always secondary to his.

Priscilla ends up becoming a ghost in her own life. We see her quietly wandering Graceland. When she tries to make friends with a couple of women her own age who work on the property, she’s rebuked by Elvis’ father for distracting them from their work. She resigns herself to being like a piece of furniture at Graceland, constantly put in her place, and only paid attention when Elvis is at home from shooting one of his movies. When he does come home, the moments between the couple are rare. They’re just as likely to hang out with Elvis’ crew of stunted jocks (with Elvis as the perpetual captain of the football team) as they are to watch TV together in the bedroom.

The cruel joke of Priscilla’s life is that she’s theoretically living the dream. If Elvis is the King, then she must be the Queen. Except that distinction doesn't exist for her. Plucked out of high school, she’s denied the opportunity to find herself or her own desires. Like Elvis, she becomes stuck in a state of perpetual adolescence until Elvis is finally gone for so long (playing his endless Vegas residency) that Priscilla has a chance to pursue her own interests. While I wish the ending of the film wrestled more with what it means to be “Priscilla Presley” after Elvis’ death, it at least works as the culmination of a coming-of-age story.

Elvis received accolades and box office revenue, but Priscilla is the far more rewarding film. Spaeny is a terrific actor, and I’m hoping that this film will give her the breakthrough she deserves. Elordi is equally impressive as Elvis, especially when you consider having to play this icon so soon after Austin Butler’s celebrated turn. Some may feel put off by the film’s quiet tone, but for me, that’s why Priscilla works. It’s about what happens behind the flash, and moreover, what it’s like living in the shadow of someone who’s always in the spotlight. It may be good to be the King; no one ever asks about the Queen.

What I’m Watching

Now that we’ve wrapped up our Frasier rewatch, we’re grinding through Season 5 of Love Is Blind. This is easily the worst season of the show thus far because there simply isn’t a couple to root for. There’s clearly a lot of places the show went wrong: having two people who previously dated put in the pods together; only having three couples make it out of the pods; and only two get to the altar. That means dragging out a lot of conflict—or outright forcing it, as in the case of Uche and Aaliyah. I suppose the producers can’t demand participants to propose, but the couples this season just seem petty and conniving as they bicker over things both large and small. I didn’t think The Golden Bachelor would be the superior Reality TV watch of the season, but here we are. Give me people in their 60s and 70s trying to find love again. That’s a much sweeter show.

What I’m Reading

It’s surprisingly slow-going through MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios. Part of that may be that I’m kind of Marvel’d out (I liked the first four episodes of Loki: Season 2 when I watched the screeners a few weeks ago, but upon further reflection, it’s more that I like the world and the characters rather than the story they’re telling), but also I covered pretty much all the of MCU. When the book tells me that Emily Blunt was the top choice for Black Widow but couldn’t do it because she was already contractually obligated to do Gulliver’s Travels, I know that because I reported on it at the time. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad book; it just means that it may be better suited for someone who was not an entertainment journalist from 2007-2021.

What I’m Hearing

Bum me out, Serial! The new show is The Kids of Rutherford County, which chronicled how kids (yes, literal children who were around 8 to 10 years old in some cases) were frequently sent to juvenile detention in a Tennessee county. When I heard the trailer, at first I thought it was referring to the Kids for Cash scandal, but no! This is an entirely different case of sending kids to jail. *HEAVY SIGH*

What I’m Playing

I can’t get over how much fun I’m having playing Spider-Man 2. I kind of don’t want it to end since it’s not only a joy to play, but it’s also got a great story. I suppose the upside to finishing it will be that I can move on to other games, but props to Insomniac Games for making a sequel that was worth the wait.