Priscilla is peak Sofia Coppola. For those who admire her films this will be terrific news. For the rest of us who have the patience to sit through it, it’s an exercise in astonishment, knowing that as usual Coppola will get all kinds of credit for feminist stances and important social commentary and insightful portrayals when what she’s really interested in is high-fashion clothing, and accessories, and posh furniture, and fancy collectable bric-a-brac, and all the other consumer goods rich people can buy to adorn their states of ennui and glamorous lassitude.

The source material for the film, Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, seems to be ideal Coppola material. In interviews, Coppola talks about what a big impression the memoir made on her, especially the account of her teenage years:

I was just so interested in Priscilla’s story and her perspective on what it all felt like to grow up as a teenager in Graceland. She was going through all the stages of young womanhood in such an amplified world — kinda similar to Marie Antoinette.