Lisa Marie Presley died at the start of this year, but months before that, she expressed dismay with this version of her father’s story. It’s the story her mother, Priscilla, wrote for the book “Elvis and Me.” I was happy we got to see this side of Elvis, because in last year’s movie, the courtship was shown briefly and looked cute. Folks, Priscilla was 14 when they met, and the King was 24, and had already been with lots of women. And he didn’t just happen to meet her, he had one of his guys combing diners looking for young women.
The film also shows how Elvis gave her a pill that knocked her out for two days straight. So yeah, Lisa Marie was worried that her dad would look like the scumbag he was. Now, don’t get me wrong, the songs were great. I own the Sun Sessions, Viva Las Vegas, and 20 Golden Hits. But just as with Michael Jackson, the negative shouldn’t be dismissed (and I say the same when it comes to Hollywood folks like Roman Polanski and Mel Gibson). Talent shouldn’t make us turn a blind eye towards disgusting behavior.
I was a bit bummed it was Sofia Coppola tackling this story. While I loved her film “On the Rocks” I disliked The Beguiled, The Bling Ring, Marie Antoinette (although I loved hearing Bow Wow Wow in it), and I thought The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation were both okay, but overrated. And, just like with Marie Antoinette, songs were played that weren’t around during the time period. In this movie (which wasn’t allowed to use any Elvis songs), it was playing the fantastic “Crimson & Clover” in the early ‘60s when Elvis and Priscilla met. Well, Tommy James released that song in the late ‘60s. Just because Coppola thinks the line “I don’t hardly know her/But I think I could love her” fits, it takes ya out of the picture (or it does for me anyway).
Now, hearing Venus (Frankie Avalon), in various versions worked, as did Brenda Lee, Ray Charles, and the Righteous Brothers, But the Ramones covering the Ronettes – not so much. And, while I thought it was a powerful ending with Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” that song needs to be retired from movies.
The movie has the usual biopic tropes and often gets repetitive. Yet it’s visually stunning, and I was never bored (although many other people that watched it expressed that it was a bit slow at two hours in length).
The casting of Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Beaulieu was perfect. She was cute, but looked 14-years-old. Yet, later when she was older and wiser, I had to lean in and ask my wife if it was a different actress. She looked older and more mature.
Jacob Elordi of Euphoria, played Elvis. He did a decent job, except for two things. We’re coming off having just seen Elvis last year, played so well by the Oscar-nominated Austin Butler. Also, Elordi is 6’5” and Spaeny is 5’1”, so it looked really, really odd seeing him always towering over Priscilla (in real life, Elvis was only 6 inches taller).
The Beaulieu family was on the military base in Germany, and in a diner alone, Priscilla is approached about going to a party at Elvis’ house. My wife and I were happy to see her parents were having problems with the relationship and questioning Presley’s motives. As I watched others tell them they had nothing to worry about, I couldn’t help but think Michael Jackson had similar conversations with parents, wondering why he wanted to spend time with their boys. Yet it’s these thoughts that consume you watching the story and make it problematic. It’s such a disgusting thing Elvis did in grooming and courting this young girl, and his constant infidelity and the toxic nature of the relationship. It’s crazy how when Priscilla asked about Anita Wood, or the tabloids saying he’s having an affair with his co-star Ann-Margret, he’ll first used that move lots of guys use – talking negatively about the other woman as if they’re nuts to think you’d want anything to do with them.
“Oh baby, don’t you worry about her. She only cares about herself and her own career. I’d never be interested in a woman like that, baby.”
There was also: “That woman has big old shoulders, like a linebacker or something. So ugly.”
Or when he’s caught red-handed (a love letter from Ann-Margret asking when they can meet again, with her kiss on it), he starts yelling, saying maybe Priscilla isn’t the woman for him and they should just end things. That gets the young bride crying and apologizing. It made it so much more thrilling when he tried to pull that move one too many times and she said “Okay, I’ll start packing” only to have Elvis start relenting.
For those that don’t know the story, Priscilla’s parents actually let her move to Memphis and live at Graceland, to finish high school. On the way home my wife was so shocked the parents let her do this, but I said that it actually made sense. Had they not agreed to do it, she would have left anyway to be with Elvis and it would have just fractured their relationship. They obviously weren’t happy with it, but Elvis’ dad lived there, and so they just prayed for the best (but they got the devil in disguise, oh yes they did…oops; sorry I went there).
Included in the many ways Elvis tried to mold and manipulate this young woman, was him reading his dopey Eastern philosophy books, and making her read along or listen to his babblings on the subject. It was hysterical seeing him take a phone call from Colonel Tom saying “Get rid of the books” followed by a scene of him throwing them all into a fire like it was a book banning at some church.
The film showed how Elvis controlled how she looked and what she did. He made her dye her hair, wear full makeup daily, and not wear dresses with patterns. He preferred solid colors, but no brown! He made her learn to shoot guns, stay at home alone (no job after school for you!) and to deal with the dopey frat boys he hung around with (it was refreshing that none of them were rude to her, or tried making a pass at her).
So much of the middle portion of the film are just shots of the camera focused on a sad-looking Priscilla, trying to comfort herself with the puppy he bought her, or wearing heels and going into different rooms in Graceland. A lot of this would have been more interesting if we weren’t privy to these stories already.
After seeing this, I have so much more respect for Rita Moreno. She said in interviews last year, she went on a date with Elvis and that he was really boring. In this, we see how much of a dumb hick he really was. And coming after the Colonel Tom Hanks and Elvis movie last year, we don’t need another Elvis film for a while.
There were good costumes and set designs. The film was well-shot, but it didn’t reach the emotional depths it needed to. There just wasn’t enough insight into these characters. Perhaps it needed a little more conversation and a little less action (sorry, that’s twice).
At least I was sitting comfortably in the reclining seats at the Angelika Film Center watching it, otherwise it would have been a real slog.
2 stars out of 5.