Film Review

Priscilla (2023) — Cailee Spaeny shines, revealing the woman behind Elvis the icon

When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments.

Sofia Coppola has made a career out of examining the performance of femininity. From her first feature, The Virgin Suicides (1999), to her latest Priscilla, her mostly female protagonists search for autonomy within the context of the male gaze. Time and again, she’s deconstructed the trappings of being a female in proximity to power, all while maintaining a fierce protectiveness of her heroine’s point of view. At times, this has led to an overly simplistic interpretation of those characters, as with The Bling Ring (2013) or The Beguiled (2017). Though she always succeeds in making her characters interesting, Coppola sometimes fails to convey what makes their stories compelling.

Thankfully, Priscilla avoids these pitfalls; indeed, it’s her most riveting and emotionally captivating film in years…