What to expect from the new 'Priscilla' Presley movie | Know Your 901

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What's the buzz on the 'Priscilla' movie?

Not sure if this has been the case in every city, but if you attended a movie in Memphis recently, odds are high that you saw the 46-second appetite-whetting trailer for "Priscilla," director Sofia Coppola's upcoming biographical feature film about Priscilla Presley.

The "Priscilla" preview has been appended to all types of movies, from blockbusters to art films. A montage of Aqua Net hair spray, beckoning Graceland gates, rhinestoned capes, shag carpets and equally thick eyeliner, backed by a 1992 song titled"How You Satisfy Me" by the Australian band Spectrum (the Elvis Presley Estate did not grant Coppola the license to use Elvis recordings), the trailer suggests the film will be "in conversation," as the saying goes, with Baz Luhrmann's hit 2022 biopic, "Elvis." Sort of a he said/she thing, this time giving weight to a person, Priscilla, who hardly figured in the Luhrmann movie at all.

The he said/she said dichotomy is perhaps true behind the Elvis scenes, as well. Priscilla Presley told the Hollywood Reporter that Sofia Coppola is the rare filmmaker who could "understand" her story; meanwhile, Joel Weinshanker, managing partner and majority owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, said EPE would only license music for projects "that Elvis would be proud of." It might be safe to assume that Elvis would not take pride in a movie that depicts him as sometimes "cruel and manipulative" (according to The New York Times) or that emphasizes the fact that Priscilla was 14 when Elvis — who was in the Army when he met her — began his pursuit.

In any event, "Priscilla" looks like it will affirm Coppola's status as an auteur with a singular preoccupation, namely, the lives of privileged yet lonely young women within opulent, expansive environments that constrict rather than liberate. (Examples from the Coppola filmography include "The Virgin Suicides," "Lost in Translation," "Somewhere" and "Marie Antoinette.") As critic Glenn Kenny wrote in RogerEbert.com: "Her pictures are all, in one way or another, about captivity and isolation. For the characters held captive the cage is often a gilded one..." Without fail, Coppola presents these young women characters in scenarios that treat them with sympathy, tenderness and integrity.

Coppola, the film's writer-director, adapted "Priscilla" from the 1985 best-seller "Elvis and Me" by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (as her credit appears on the cover) and Sandra Harmon. For her leads, she turned to actors who don't yet have widespread name recognition as Luhrmann did, when he cast Austin Butler as Presley in "Elvis."

Cailee Spaeny, a Missouri-born actress whose credits include the HBO series "Mare of Easttown" and the fantasy sequels "Pacific Rim: Uprising" and "The Craft: Legacy," will play Priscilla. The role of Elvis is handled by Australia's Jacob Elordi, known for his bad-boy and heartthrob roles in Netflix's "The Kissing Booth" franchise and HBO's controversial "Euphoria."

These production facts have been available for months on the Internet; the "Priscilla" trailer has been on YouTube since June. What had not been available to any members of the public until recently, however, was the actual movie.

That changed on Sept. 4, when "Priscilla" debuted at the 80th edition of the prestigious Venice International Film Festival, where Priscilla Presley joined Coppola and the stars of the movie on the red carpet. Most reports from the premiere emphasized the film's presentation of what The New York Times called a "warts-and-all" approach "the Presley's rocky relationship." In the words of one Times headline: "New Elvis Movie Trades the Music for Dissonance."

The festival also gave critics a chance to post the first reviews of the film, and, for the most part, they have been glowing — glowing red, red as a ripe tomato, if one gives credibility to the review-aggregating Rotten Tomatoes website. In the wake of the film festival, "Priscilla" registered "94% Fresh" on the "Tomatometer," meaning that 94 percent of the 33 website-approved critics who have written reviews liked the movie.

Spaeny, in particular, was praised, and not just by the critics: The Venice film festival jury gave her the best actress award for "Prsiciall."

Distributed by A24, the movie is set to be released in the U.S. on Nov. 3. By that time, dozens more critics will have chimed in. But for now, here's a sample of what those who've seen the movie have said:

Jessica Kiang, The New York Times: In a Venice festival report that ran under the headline "Trapped Woman and Controlling Men at the Center of Stories," Kiang wrote that Coppola's film is "another tale of a woman's self-engineered escape from the influence of a dominant man... It is story about how, especially to a naive teenger, the trappings of an outwardly tantalizing lifestyle can be sprung upon you like a trap."

Marlow Stern, Rolling Stone: "Priscilla" is "a transportive, heartbreaking journey into the dark heart of celebrity, and (Coppola's) finest film since 'Lost in Translation.'"

Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair: "'Priscilla' presents Coppola with a tricky task. She wants to honor a woman’s memories while also being clear-eyed about what were some pretty alarming circumstances. It’s a challenge she greets with measured insight; 'Priscilla' is neither lurid nor sugar coated."

Owen Gleiberman, Variety: "Working with a casually meticulous docudrama authenticity," Coppola crafts "a piercingly honest drama" in which "Cailee Spaeny makes Priscilla a figure of strength... The force of her performance is how she enacts Priscilla’s slow-motion melancholy, connecting the audience right up to what it’s like to be in love with someone who turns out to be a gaslighting freak."

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: "The film’s poignancy is that of a young woman overwhelmed — some might say bamboozled — into a life that is never quite real, stepping back and taking control by walking away, even though she still loves her messed-up husband."

Rooney also connects "Priscilla" to "Barbie," the year's biggest blockbuster to date: "For much of 'Priscilla,' Sofia Coppola's subdued but stirring repositioning of the Elvis myth from the perspective of the woman who spent 14 years as his girlfriend and wife, there’s a sense of an emotionally immature man regularly taking a doll out of its box to play romance or dress-up or even kink one night when they drop acid. But he remains determined always to return her to her original packaging, in this case that of an unworldly 9th grade schoolgirl."

John Beifuss is a features reporter for The Commercial Appeal who specializes in writing about pop culture. He can be reached at john.beifuss@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: 'Priscilla' Presley: What to expect on Sofia Coppola movie, reviews