This was a masterfully stylish film - but where I felt that this quality was helping to tell and show the story and was not there for its own aesthetic sense. The meticulous recreation of a time and place through setting, cinematography and, most effectively, via clothes, was exemplary and helped to show who and what these people were. Coppola was never afraid to let the camera be still and for the framed shot to have its impact and say what it had to say - and I think this also held engagement with the viewer as if the camera remains static, the viewer has to start engaging more with what they see. We had to ‘read’ the film ourselves as we were not being forced to a point of view about the characters, their relationships or the situation - we were the judges and different viewers I think, could, fairly, come to very different views. It was distinctly visually made but not in the ‘in ya face’ style of, say Baz L where he constantly jabs us in the chest to make his point. Coppola showed that, although almost the classic example of a ‘nepo baby’ (Daddy made one of the all-time great films/he put me in it and he owns a film studio!) she does have very real talent.
Elordi was a disturbingly effective ‘King’; his lack of physical resemblance was not a problem as the script and cinematography made him the controlling and manipulative character that he was. The conspicuous height difference also greatly helped.
Spaeny (a complete unknown) was superb who managed to be both dominating when on screen and yet also, necessarily dramatically, very pale and insignificant (although with an element of steel that finally came out at the end and which had been quite subtly signalled throughout the film as well).And while a point of criticism of the film was (wrongly, I think) that the film do=focused too much on Elvis and not her, given she was the titular character, this is simply a misreading of the nature of the two performances.
Effectively the Colonel was not seen but was an all-powerful presence in the background (beautifully shown by the way that Elvis suddenly gave up a passion that he had for ‘new-agey’ ideas. Quite chilling in a way.
However there was one, not insignificant, flaw in the film I felt and that was that the ending was very rushed. Now dramatically that could make sense (it was an impulsive decision) but t did not some across effectively and the last part of the film felt very rushed with many unanswered questions hanging. With the steady, not to say relentless tempo of Elvis’s gradually increasing control, this sudden ending - all wrapped up in about 15 minutes or less - the mood an tempo of the film was broken. Now, as suggested, that could be right emotionally but dramatically it did not work for me.