Priscilla review: A complex, clever, and utterly believable look at the Presleys

PRISCILLA

(15) 113mins

★★★★★

I LIKE to imagine that when director Sofia Coppola watched Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 film Elvis, she leaned forward during the scene where he met Priscilla and whispered to herself: “Hang on, is that it?”

In his award-winning biopic, Luhrmann portrays their meeting as a love story, making nothing of the fact Priscilla was a naive 14-year-old schoolgirl while Elvis was a 24-year-old superstar.

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So in her biopic, Coppola concentrates on the relationship through the eyes of young Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny), which often feels uncomfortable. As it should.

It begins with a young girl in a diner sipping a milkshake and doing her homework. Priscilla is alone and, clearly, lonely.

It is 1959 on a US military base in Germany and Priscilla is approached by a middle-aged man looking for girls to come to one of Presley’s famous parties.

She explains her age and that her father would never allow it. “Leave him to me,” replies the strange man.

And so this often perplexing “love” story begins, with an inexperienced child being groomed, and even drugged, by an adult rock star.

But Coppola isn’t crass enough to make this a good versus evil tale.

The complexities around the relationship are allowed to breathe.

And they are presented in a way that, while concerning, are understandable.

Elvis (Jacob Elordi) is a man child, ordered to do everything by his manager or father.

He is trapped in his own success — and he soon traps Priscilla in his opulent, but solitary, Graceland.

As director of The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette and Lost In Translation, Coppola is well-tuned in presenting clever young women who are trapped by their beauty and charm, like birds in a cage.

And Priscilla is no different. Her life in Graceland is decadent, but suffocating.

She is soon pregnant, by a disappearing husband, who wishes to dress her up like a doll.

And she has no friends her own age to speak to.

Played superbly by Spaeny, who is utterly believable as a child and then the more mature, harder Priscilla, it is a near-perfect performance.

You see her change. Her spine stiffens and her mouth tightens as Elvis’s behaviour goes from infatuated boyfriend to philandering husband.

I couldn’t help falling in love with her.

SCALA!!!

(18) 96mins

★★★★☆

IF you’ve ever popped your head around London’s King’s Cross station, you might have spotted music venue Scala nearby.

But as this hilarious documentary lovingly points out, it was once a vibrant hub of cinematic excellence, decadence and naughtiness.

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Co-directed by Jane Giles – the programme manager at the Scala Cinema from 1988-1992 – and journalist Ali Catterall, Scala!!! looks back with the help of its various punters and former staff, as well as the writers, musicians and filmmakers who frequented it.

From 1978 to 1993, Scala was the place to catch a film classic among an audience of outsiders and misfits, artists and anarchists.

This documentary is full of anecdotes from patrons, such as directors Ben Wheatley, Mary Harron and Peter Strickland.

Fun and iconic clips help tell the story of a cultural hub committed to offering more than mainstream movie fodder.

And while it might be a little “inside baseball” in style, this documentary is a riotous reminder of how great the theatrical experience can be.

ONE LIFE

(12A) 109mins

★★★★☆

NOW I don’t mean to patronise any octogenarians, but at the age of 86, it seems like a miracle that Sir Anthony Hopkins is able to captivate an audience more than he ever has.

His performance as the incredible Nicholas Winton is something of heart and soul – and a reflection of how lucky we are to have this remarkable actor.

Alamy

This is the true story of Winton, who managed to rescue 669 endangered, mostly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia before the Nazi invasion.

It was a painstaking task for the young Winton (Johnny Flynn) that takes months of paperwork and the help of his mother (Helena Bonham Carter) to complete.

Yet it is the few remaining children that he was unable to help that haunt him – something Hopkins shows in an unbearably raw way.

The now departed Winton is rewarded for his efforts years later by Esther Rantzen on daytime TV, but this could be his true legacy.

There are many superb performances, but having been filmed in just 30 days, some of it does appear a little TV drama for the big screen.

A five-star story that only just misses the mark.