“You’re just a baby,” Elvis Presley said. Priscilla is a tragic story about Elvis and Priscilla’s love and feeling lost in a big narrative. 

The movie starts at a dining counter where Priscilla is brought up with a strange question by one of Elvis’ friends: Do you like Elvis Presley? From there she transports into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in which, unlike the rest of his fans, she gets to meet Elvis who is stationed in Germany. There Elvis immediately falls for her and they begin to go on dates despite her being only 14 years old at the time. 

Regardless of their whirlwind romance in Germany, they lose touch with each other when Elvis goes back to the United States. Priscilla is sad but is soon filled with shock when Elvis comes back to Germany saying that he’s in love with her. He asks to bring her to Graceland in Memphis and they convince Priscilla’s parents to let her stay in Graceland. That’s when the movie begins.

Priscilla is about a world of dark secluded isolation. Things are constantly moving but never around Priscilla. She is trapped in Elvis’s world as an object. When she enrolls in high school she is treated as a spectacle by her classmates. 

Priscilla is shown through this world of retro fashion, makeup and abuse. In the movie, there are scenes of Elvis controlling how she looks and Priscilla losing herself in the process of being Elvis’ wife. Having the movie production company A24 promote how to “get-the-look” for Priscilla’s makeup is disorientating. 

This speaks to the broader problems with Sofia Coppola’s work which is how she shows girlhood in her movies. It’s all bow ties and consumerism. 

While Coppola is often described as a feminist director who views the “female gaze,”  Priscilla is quite the contrary. Coppola shows the perspective of how Elvis views Priscilla but not how Priscilla views herself. The movie doesn’t show her inner thoughts and you are left waiting for more even at the end of the film. 

Priscilla ends with the song, “I Will Always Love You,” a dizzying reminder that even in Priscilla’s own movie Elvis still has control over the narrative.