Coppola’s movie is packed with many similarly smart, but never egotistical storytelling decisions and is easily one of the finest films of her career. She’s also brought out two sensitive, restrained performances from Spaeny, in her biggest role so far, as Priscilla and the fast-rising Elordi (“Euphoria”) as Elvis.
“Priscilla,” the superb drama about Priscilla Presley’s complicated marriage to Elvis, does not end with an Elvis Presley song.
Instead, the final minutes of writer-director Sofia Coppola’s affectionate movie, which had its North American premiere Friday at the New York Film Festival, come courtesy of another Tennessee music legend: “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton.
Actually, we hear hardly any sustained Elvis hits throughout the film’s near-two-hour runtime.
When 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) first falls for the 24-year-old King (Jacob Elordi) on a US Air Force base in Germany, where he and her father are stationed in 1959, she sweetly floats through her high-school hallway as “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James & the Shondells plays. Talk about all shook up — that song wasn’t even released until 1968.
When Elvis is a jerk to his wife, he can’t cheaply earn the viewer’s forgiveness by crooning “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” He sure behaves like a hound dog when he’s away filming “Viva Las Vegas” with Ann-Margret, but he never sings a ditty about it.
With Coppola’s shrewd eschewing of Elvis tunes, she makes two requests of the audience: One, to evaluate this storied relationship like we would any other — divorced from Elvis’ musical genius.
