Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend.
Sofia Coppola's intimate portrait of Priscilla Presley flips the Elvis mythology to center his wife's perspective, with Cailee Spaeny delivering a remarkably internalized performance that earned her Venice's Best Actress award. The cinematography is lush and precise, using soft textures and Graceland's gilded-cage aesthetic to evoke both glamour and claustrophobia. However, the plot moves deliberately slowly even by Coppola's standards, and the narrative arc—young woman gradually awakening to her own agency within a controlling relationship—follows a familiar trajectory despite the real-life setting. The ending, while emotionally honest, arrives quietly without full dramatic payoff. Novelty sits comfortably above average given Coppola's distinctive feminine gaze and tone, but her aesthetic vocabulary (alienated women in opulent prisons) has been well-established since Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, limiting its singularity.