---
title: "Priscilla"
year: 2023
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/priscilla"
fi1m_id: "priscilla"
imdb_id: "tt22041854"
tmdb_id: 1020006
wikidata_id: "Q115115152"
fi1m_score: 74
critics_score: 75
critics_reviews: 26
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:00.479050+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Priscilla (2023)

Directed by Sofia Coppola · 1h 53m · MPA R · Drama, Romance

## Identity

Priscilla

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/priscilla
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** priscilla
- **IMDb ID:** tt22041854
- **TMDB ID:** 1020006
- **Wikidata ID:** Q115115152
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22041854/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1020006, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q115115152

**Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 75 from 26 reviews

*In a sentence:* Elvis picks the dress, the hair and the eyeliner, and never once sings

> Sofia Coppola tells the Presley marriage from inside the house and keeps Elvis to the edge of the frame, and for an hour it is quietly chilling. Then the film runs out of new ways to show a girl waiting, and settles for pretty.

## Synopsis

West Germany, 1959. Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) is fourteen, the daughter of an Air Force officer, Captain Beaulieu (Ari Cohen), and bored in a diner near the base when a soldier invites her to a party at the house Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi) is renting during his military service. He is twenty-four and homesick, and he asks her to come back. Her parents (Cohen and Dagmara Dominczyk) object, then relent. When Elvis goes home to Memphis the phone calls thin out and the papers fill with other women, until an invitation arrives to visit Graceland. Sofia Coppola’s film, drawn from Priscilla Presley’s memoir, follows her from that first party through her school years in his house and into the marriage.

## Review

Sofia Coppola has been making the same film, in one form or another, since [*The Virgin Suicides*](https://film.one/film/the-virgin-suicides): a girl shut in somewhere beautiful, and the doors slowly closing. *Priscilla* is that film with the most famous house in America for a set. It draws on Priscilla Presley’s memoir and takes her side entirely, which means Elvis Presley, played by Jacob Elordi, is kept to the edge of things, on the telephone, on a film set out of shot, asleep in the afternoon. None of his songs are on the soundtrack. It is a good film for about an hour, shrewd and quietly chilling, and then it has shown us what it has and keeps showing it.

The first hour is the strong part. Cailee Spaeny plays Priscilla from fourteen, and Philippe Le Sourd shoots her small in wide rooms, soft light, low lamps, so that when Elordi enters a frame he takes up most of it. He is a head taller than she is and Coppola does not need to say a word about the difference. The party in Germany, where a homesick soldier asks a schoolgirl about her day and means it, is written without a villain in it, and that is what unnerves. We watched him ask her to come back and felt a small, cold drop in the stomach, because his voice was kind and nothing on screen was telling us to distrust it.

Then Graceland. Tamara Deverell’s design gives the house pale carpets, gold fittings and drawn curtains, and Le Sourd lights it as if it were always half past four in the afternoon. Priscilla finishes school there, comes home to an empty house, and waits. The best scene in the film is a small one. Elvis looks at a dress with a print on it and says, mildly, “that doesn’t suit you, baby”, and picks another; then the hair goes black, then the eyeliner goes on. Spaeny plays her as pleased. That is the unsettling part, and the film is about how long it takes to stop being pleased.

Sarah Flack cuts the years as a run of short, glancing scenes: a Christmas, a car, a telephone, another Christmas. Coppola has always been good at time passing without anything happening, and here it is the point rather than a mannerism. The score is by Thomas Mars, Deck d’Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz, the band Phoenix, and it stays low and warm. The songs laid over the montages are mostly from years after the events they play under, which sounds like a gimmick and is not; they keep the film from turning into a costume parade.

The trouble is the second half, which we will keep vague. Having built the pattern, Coppola repeats it: he is away, she waits, he is back, he is sweet, he is sudden, he is away again. Each repetition is shot as well as the last and tells us less. Elordi is good at the sweetness and the sudden turn, but the script never lets him be anything from the inside, so Elvis stays a weather system rather than a man, and a film about a marriage needs both people in it. Vernon Presley (Tim Post) and Grandma Dodger (Lynne Griffin) wander through the house without much to do. Around the eighty-minute mark we found ourselves admiring a bedspread and realising we were looking at the bedspread because nothing else in the shot had changed. The last stretch arrives quickly and stops rather than ends.

Set against Coppola’s own work it sits in the middle. It is more controlled than *Marie Antoinette*, which had the same idea and more fun with it, and it never reaches the ache of [*Lost in Translation*](https://film.one/film/lost-in-translation), because Priscilla is given so little to say that we are asked to read her almost entirely from Spaeny’s face. Spaeny is up to that, and the film is worth seeing for her. At 113 minutes it is not long. It feels longer, and we think that is partly deliberate and partly not.

It is a 15 certificate, and rightly, though nothing in it is graphic. Go in wanting a film about a girl rather than a film about Elvis. There are plenty of the other kind.

*Fi1m score 74, published 9 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like Priscilla. The praise clusters around Cailee Spaeny, whose quiet performance is singled out again and again for carrying Priscilla from schoolgirl to wife without a false note, and around Sofia Coppola’s decision to keep Elvis at the edge of the frame and tell the story from inside the gilded cage. The costumes, the production design and the soundtrack choices come in for regular admiration.

The reservations are milder and mostly shared: several reviews find the later stretches slacken, the ending arrives abruptly, and the tone is more muted than Coppola’s earlier work. The spread is narrow; twenty-one of the twenty-six reviews are favourable. The dissenters do not dispute the craft. The Evening Standard finds the repetition of Priscilla’s boredom wearing, Collider thinks the film plays it safe and settles for a compilation of a bad marriage, and The Independent warns that its dourness will sit badly with Elvis fans.

## Straight answers

**Is Priscilla worth watching?**

*Priscilla* is worth watching for anyone who wants a film about a girl inside a famous marriage rather than a film about Elvis, and we scored it 74. The first hour is shrewd and quietly chilling, with Cailee Spaeny carrying it from fourteen, and the second half repeats itself until it stops rather than ends. None of Elvis's songs are in it.

**How long is Priscilla, and what is it rated?**

*Priscilla* runs 1h 53m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and romance film.

**Where can I watch Priscilla in the US?**

*Priscilla* is streaming on The Roku Channel in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $4.99. It leaves The Roku Channel on 1 October. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Priscilla, and is it suitable for children?**

*Priscilla* is a 15 certificate in the UK and an R in the US, but nothing in it is graphic. Its unease comes from a grown man courting a schoolgirl and from a marriage of waiting and sudden turns, played with kindness on the surface, which is what unsettles. It is not for young children, and teenagers should know it is slow and quiet rather than frightening.

**How does Priscilla compare to Phantom Thread?**

*Priscilla* and [*Phantom Thread*](https://film.one/film/phantom-thread) both concern a man who chooses a woman's dresses, but Paul Thomas Anderson's film is the funnier and the fuller of the two, because Vicky Krieps's woman eventually chooses back and Daniel Day-Lewis's man is shown from the inside. *Priscilla* keeps Elvis at the edge of the frame and its heroine mostly silent, so it is the sadder film and the thinner one. Watch Anderson's if you want a marriage with two people in it.

**What should I watch after Priscilla?**

After *Priscilla*, try [*Marie Antoinette*](https://film.one/film/marie-antoinette) (2006, Fi1m 74): Coppola’s earlier girl-in-a-palace film, with the same idea and more appetite. Then [*Spencer*](https://film.one/film/spencer) (2021, Fi1m 73): Diana at Sandringham over one Christmas; the house is the antagonist and it knows it; and [*Phantom Thread*](https://film.one/film/phantom-thread) (2017, Fi1m 87): A man who chooses a woman’s dresses, and a woman who eventually chooses back.

### Reviews we read (30)

- **The i Paper**, Christina Newland (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as a lyrical, cautionary exploration of toxic love and girlhood desire from Priscilla's perspective, highlighting Spaeny's vulnerable performance and the seductive yet isolating world Coppola creates. It elevates beyond its glamorous trappings to feel transcendent and great. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/priscilla-review-best-film-of-2024-2833280)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (85/100, inferred): Coppola delivers a subdued but stirring portrait of Priscilla Presley’s years with Elvis, centering the young woman’s perspective with emotional transparency via Spaeny’s performance. The film is an impeccable union of director and subject, with nuanced restraint and sumptuous textures. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/priscilla-review-cailee-spaeny-jacob-elordi-sofia-coppola-priscilla-presley-1235581607/)
- **The AV Club**, Lauren Coates (B+): Coppola paints an elegant, introspective portrait of the troubled marriage that shatters rose-tinted myths around Elvis while highlighting the power imbalance. Spaeny gives a breakout performance as the quiet, inner-strength heart of the story, supported by strong production design and costumes. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/priscilla-movie-review-sofia-coppola-1850982067)
- **Empire**, Beth Webb (80/100, inferred): The critic describes it as textbook Sofia Coppola, a meticulously crafted melodrama focusing on Priscilla's journey through a toxic marriage, with soaring portrayal of her growth and excellent work from Spaeny and Elordi. The woozy aesthetic and focus on loneliness make it a sublime continuation of the director's style. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/priscilla/)
- **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (3/4/5): The review calls the film subtle and sensational, praising Cailee Spaeny's remarkable performance as a star is born in this biographical drama. It singles out the delicate portrayal of the all-consuming fire of first love and the realization that the fairytale does not always end happily. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/priscilla)
- **Radio Times**, James Mottram (4/5): The review calls it a delicate, sensitive biopic seen through the eyes of the woman who knew Elvis best, based on her memoir. It singles out the attention to detail in costumes and design as pitch perfect while noting the final act lacks some emotional impact. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-a95vm2/priscilla/)
- **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): Coppola delivers a stylish, sensitive portrait of Priscilla's gilded-cage existence that balances empathy for the central relationship with a modern awareness of its power imbalances. The film excels in its nuanced depiction of isolation and gradual emancipation, particularly through costume and anachronistic music choices. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/31/priscilla-review-sofia-coppola-biopic-cailee-spaeny-jacob-elordi)
- **The Telegraph**, Robbie Collin (4/5): Coppola's film succeeds by keeping Elvis firmly in the background and focusing on Priscilla's perspective, resulting in a beautiful and affecting portrait of a young woman in a gilded cage. The absence of Elvis songs and the emphasis on visual and emotional detail make it a distinctive and moving work. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/priscilla-review-sofia-coppola-cailee-spaeny-jacob-elordi/)
- **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (4/5): The critic presents the film as a stylish dark-edged fairy tale and tart rejoinder to other depictions of Elvis, centering Priscilla's side of the story as a pink-hued prison movie. It singles out the empathetic approach that hands agency back to the young heroine without stern moral judgment. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/priscilla-2023)
- **Sight and Sound** (75/100, inferred): The critic describes Coppola's film as a heartsore biopic offering an ethereal, interior portrait of Priscilla Presley's troubled years with Elvis through dreamlike montages. It highlights the director's talent for creating substance from surface details and the inside-outside disconnect in the relationship. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/priscilla-sofia-coppolas-ethereal-interior-portrait-priscilla-presleys-troubled-years-with-elvis)
- **The New Yorker**, Molly Fischer (75/100, inferred): Coppola explores the vexed archetype of the schoolgirl through Priscilla's journey into and out of Graceland. The film examines the ordinary experience of being desired for one's youth taken to a fantastical extreme. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/sympathy-for-the-schoolgirl)
- **Vulture** (75/100, inferred): The film immerses viewers in Priscilla’s girlish fantasy and wish-fulfillment while revealing the disturbing power differential and isolation in her relationship with Elvis. It is an uncomfortable yet thoroughly engaging watch, most vibrant in its early romance sequences and Spaeny’s performance. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/priscilla-sofia-coppola-movie-review.html)
- **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): The review notes that audiences will see Priscilla as groomed and Elvis as controlling and abusive, painting a darker picture than other films through a soft, subtle approach. It singles out the muted sensitivity and enveloping design as strengths, with the softly-softly method as the film's ultimate power. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/priscilla-venice-review/5185541.article)
- **Total Film**, Jane Crowther (70/100, inferred): The critic calls it a beguiling, evocative companion piece to other Elvis films, praising Coppola's creation of atmosphere, production design, and Spaeny's expressive performance amid themes of love and toxic fame. It notes some issues like an abrupt ending and more muted tone than the director's other work. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/priscilla-review/)
- **Slant Magazine**, David Robb (60/100, inferred): Coppola returns to familiar territory with a photogenic tale of fame and female desire, effective in its early courtship scenes but hindered by its expanded scope that obscures emotional subtleties. The result feels tasteful yet empty, stranded between specificity and spectacle. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/priscilla-review-sofia-coppola-cailee-spaenee-jacob-elordi/)
- **The Independent** (50/100, inferred): The critic sees the film as a sparse, downbeat drama depicting Elvis as an insecure narcissist who grooms and controls the teenage Priscilla, resulting in her loss of freedom in a gilded cage. Strong performances from Spaeny and Elordi are noted, but the overall tone is dour and uncomfortable for Elvis fans compared to more exuberant biopics. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/priscilla-review-elvis-sofia-coppola-b2469460.html)
- **Evening Standard**, Jo-Ann Titmarsh (40/100, inferred): The critic finds little new in Coppola's sympathetic but repetitive take on the well-known story, with the film emphasizing Priscilla's boredom and lack of agency in a controlling environment. While it has stylish moments and good performances, the screenplay and repetitive structure make it hard not to feel bored. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/priscilla-movie-review-sofia-coppola-elvis-presley-b1104763.html)
- **Financial Times**, Danny Leigh (★★★★☆): The film offers a woozy, on-brand Coppola portrait of Priscilla as a bright but naive teenager drawn into Elvis's orbit, with a subtle modern lens on the past. It finds something beyond mere tragedy in her story, emphasizing suggestion over editorialising. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/c0e8698d-c72a-4126-b5c9-463d7ae024db)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang: Coppola charts the young woman's struggle with exquisite patience and pointillist detail in a story of too-young love and power imbalances. The film shimmers with beauty and heartbreak and is her strongest in more than a decade. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-10-27/priscilla-review-presley-elvis-sofia-coppola)
- **The New York Times**, Ben Kenigsberg (Critic’s Pick): Coppola re-examines the Elvis Presley story from Priscilla's viewpoint as a young woman drawn into a lonely, isolating world. The film highlights her sensitive performance and the director's ability to balance darkness with humor and airiness. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/movies/priscilla-review.html)
- **The Skinny**, Stefania Sarrubba (5/5): The critic calls it a stunning return that empathetically captures a young woman's universal growing pains in extraordinary circumstances. It singles out Spaeny's subtle, breathing-as-emotional-outlet performance and the film's flawless soundtracking. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/priscilla-sofia-coppola-review)
- **NME**, Matthew Turner (90/100, inferred): The review hails the film as a brilliant biopic that unflinchingly depicts the dark side of the relationship from Priscilla's viewpoint. It singles out the standout performances by Spaeny and Elordi along with Coppola's evocative soundtrack choices. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/priscilla-review-elvis-presley-sofia-coppola-3493033)
- **Den of Geek**, David Crow (4/5): The critic praises the film as a pensive character study that prioritizes Priscilla's interior perspective over Elvis myth-making. It singles out Cailee Spaeny's revelatory performance for conveying her gradual awakening to autonomy amid the imbalanced relationship. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/priscilla-review-sofia-coppola-elvis-mythmaking/)
- **Film Stories**, Maria Lattila (80/100, inferred): The film empathetically follows Priscilla through the highs and lows of her relationship with Elvis in a classic gilded cage story. It is visually stunning and acutely aching in its exploration of first love, with a luminous performance from Cailee Spaeny. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/priscilla-review-sofia-coppolas-latest-film-is-an-aching-portrait-of-first-love/)
- **The Wrap** (80/100, inferred): Coppola’s lush and compassionate biopic offers a feminine, truth-telling counterpoint to myth-making by centering Priscilla’s perspective on her youthful devotion and isolation. Strong performances and period details shine, though the pacing loses coherence in the later sections. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/priscilla-review-sofia-coppola-presley/)
- **Deadline**, Stephanie Bunbury (70/100, inferred): Coppola’s stylistic pizzazz overcomes the sense that the story is familiar by focusing on intimate details and shadowy interiors from Priscilla’s viewpoint. The film feels slight with no major revelations but finds meaning in small observations of the controlling relationship. [Read](https://deadline.com/2023/09/priscilla-movie-review-sofia-coppola-cailee-spaeny-jacob-elordi-elvis-1235536070/)
- **Eye for Film**, Anne-Katrin Titze (70/100, inferred): Coppola paints pictures of mid-century Americana and its moral shortcomings with a light touch that leaves space to draw conclusions about grooming and fame. The film explores the courtship between Elvis and teenage Priscilla through texture, colour, mood and telling details. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/priscilla-2023-film-review-by-anne-katrin-titze)
- **/Film**, Shae Sennett (6.5/10): The film puts the audience inside young Priscilla's mind, showing a romance that becomes a gilded cage and a sobering portrait of Elvis as neither monster nor saint. It succeeds as a visceral emotional and textural experience but feels thinly woven in places. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1429635/priscilla-review/)
- **Collider**, Emma Kiely (C): The critic views the film as a disappointment that plays it safe and delivers a disjointed compilation of a toxic marriage rather than deeper insight into Priscilla's experience. The muted aesthetic and lack of Coppola's signature vibrancy are highlighted as major shortcomings despite strong lead performances. [Read](https://collider.com/priscilla-review/)
- **Paste**, Jesse Hassenger (8.0): The critic finds the film a strong fit for Coppola's style, offering a clear and purposeful look at Priscilla's gilded-cage life at Graceland that avoids overstaying its welcome. Spaeny's performance is singled out for its convincing portrayal of Priscilla across different ages. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/sofia-coppola/priscilla-review)

## Details

- **Director:** Sofia Coppola
- **Director:** Sofia Coppola
- **Writer:** Sofia Coppola
- **Cinematography:** Philippe Le Sourd
- **Editor:** Sarah Flack
- **Music:** Thomas Mars, Deck d'Arcy, Christian Mazzalai, Laurent Brancowitz
- **Production design:** Tamara Deverell
- **Producer:** Sofia Coppola, Lorenzo Mieli, Youree Henley
- **Cast:** Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla; Jacob Elordi as Elvis; Ari Cohen as Captain Beaulieu; Dagmara Dominczyk as Ann Beaulieu; Tim Post as Vernon Presley; Lynne Griffin as Grandma 'Dodger'; Dan Beirne as Joe; Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll as Alan 'Hog Ears'
- **Runtime:** 1h 53m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 3 November 2023
- **Genres:** Drama, Romance
- **Also in:** [Films where the soundtrack is the real star](https://film.one/collections/soundtrack-is-the-star.md)
- **Budget:** $20 million
- **Box office:** $30 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK8tT07cY-o

## Where to watch in the US

- The Roku Channel: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $4.99, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $19.99, uhd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, DK, EC, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, IE, IN, KR, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, SE, TR, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Volpi Cup for Best Actress 2023: Volpi Cup for Best Actress (won)

## If you liked this

- *Marie Antoinette* (2006), Fi1m 74: Coppola’s earlier girl-in-a-palace film, with the same idea and more appetite. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/marie-antoinette.md)
- *Spencer* (2021), Fi1m 73: Diana at Sandringham over one Christmas; the house is the antagonist and it knows it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/spencer.md)
- *Phantom Thread* (2017), Fi1m 87: A man who chooses a woman’s dresses, and a woman who eventually chooses back. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/phantom-thread.md)
- *Rebecca* (1940), Fi1m 85: A young bride in a great house, and a husband whose past fills every room. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/rebecca.md)
- *Elvis* (2022), Fi1m 66: The loud version of the same years, for comparison; Priscilla barely gets a word. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/elvis.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/priscilla