It’s been over a year since Baz Luhrmann’s Graceland-backed Elvis Presley biopic hit cinemas.
The Oscar-nominated biopic starring Austin Butler as The King has 77 per cent positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, the Priscilla movie – based on Priscilla Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me and which failed to get permission to use the star’s back catalogue – has 95 per cent positive reactions from critics after the movie’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
The A24 movie is directed by Sofia Coppola and stars Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla and Jacob Elordi as Elvis.
And here are some of the first reviews praising the movie for “not sugarcoating” the truth.
Rolling Stone
People may fault Coppola for dipping her toe in familiar terrain, but it’s hard to argue with the result: a transportive, heartbreaking journey into the dark heart of celebrity, and her finest film since Lost in Translation.
Daily Telegraph
The film’s signature move is poking around the strange psychological grey space between being kept and being caught.
The Times
Elvis fans will undoubtedly be appalled. But, well, they’ll always have Luhrmann.
Total Film
An intriguing tale of burning love, toxic fame, and outgrowing dreams, Priscilla should please fans and entertain newcomers.
Hollywood Reporter
An impeccable union of director and subject.
Variety
The film ushers us right into Graceland (you really feel like you’re there), showing us what happened, just as it happened, without sweetener or frills.
The Guardian
This film says a great deal about Elvis and the dysfunctional business he was in and Priscilla’s modest integrity and courage.
Vanity Fair
Priscilla is neither lurid nor sugar coated. It’s a sensitive, if slight, look at a young woman rousing from a dream and confronting waking life.
Independent
In her own coolly analytical way, Coppola makes some trenchant points about the way Priscilla is controlled by the men in her life.
Although not everyone was a fan:
Evening Standard
Priscilla’s story is well known and audiences have most recently seen her depicted in Baz Luhrman’s Elvis biopic. So what can the filmmaker add to Priscilla’s story? The short answer is: not much.
Priscilla is released in select UK cinemas on Boxing Day and widely on New Year’s Day.
