Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi
“PRISCILLA” My rating: B- (In theaters)
113 minutes | MPAA rating: R
The star-crossed saga of Elvis and his child bride Priscilla Beaulieu has been retold so often that Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” will hold few surprises for Presley-holics.
What the film does offer is a dreamlike take on a teenage girl swept off her feet by the Earth’s most famous man. (Coppola and Sandra Harmon’s screenplay is based on Priscilla Presley’s memoir; Presley was a producer of the film.)
It was a romance destined to fall apart. The initially charming rock star became increasingly controlling and, after Priscilla gave birth to a baby girl, turned his back on the marital bed in favor of frat-house partying with his notorious “Memphis Mafia” of good ol’ boys.
In the title role Cailee Spaeny undergoes a remarkable physical and emotional transformation over the course of the film. Though virginal (Elvis wouldn’t consummate the relationship until marriage), her Priscilla isn’t entirely naive about the pitfalls in her path. In a sense “Priscilla” is a study of her painfully blossoming emotional maturity.
Brit actor Jacob Elordi doesn’t attempt an Elvis imitation so much as an approximation…and it pretty much works. Note that we don’t see Elvis performing any of his hits; instead the film’s soundtrack is heavy on other late-‘50s artists.
Michelle Williams
“SHOWING UP” My rating: B (For rent on various streaming services)
107 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Filmmaker Kelly Reichardt once again finds the perfect voice for her cinematic minimalism in Michelle Williams, here almost unrecognizable as a drabbed-down middle-aged artist.
When not performing administrative drudge work at an urban art school, Williams’ Lizzy devotes herself to her sculptures — foot-high ceramic statues of women caught in moments of expansive movement or somber contemplation. To the extent that the film has a plot, it’s about Lizzy preparing for a one-woman show at a small local gallery.
Mostly we eavesdrop on her life. She lives alone with a cat. (Is she straight? Gay?) Her best friend and landlord Jo (Hong Chau, an Oscar nominee for “The Whale”) is a fiber artist who is as outgoing and vivacious as Lizzy is dour and brooding.
Lizzy’s divorced mother is also her boss; her father (Judd Hirsch) is a well-regarded (and egotistic) potter, now retired. There’s also a schizophrenic brother (John Magaro) favored by their parents as a genius, though he’s unable to hold a job.
What we get here is a portrait of a woman as gray as the colorless clothes she favors, but nevertheless devoted to creating art, even though she’ll never make a living off it. At least she’s showing up.
And as much as “Showing Up” is a personality study, it is also an astonishingly lived-in depiction of a world whose inhabitants are devoted to creating. Anyone familiar with an art school environment will find the film almost a documentary experience.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 