Priscilla | 2023 | R | – 4.3.5

Why is “Priscilla” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “drug use and some language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a relationship between a teen girl and a young man, a few implied sex scenes, several kissing scenes, references to infidelity, a pillow fight that ends with a young woman being struck hard, many scenes of excessive drug use by a man and a teen girl and a young woman, many arguments and at least 2 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Biopic of Priscilla Presley: At the age of 15, Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) was introduced to 24-year-old Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi) at a party and their ill-fated love affair and eventual marriage began. Also with Ari Cohen, Dagmara Dominczyk, Tim Post, Lynne Griffin, Dan Beirne, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, Dan Abramovici, Matthew Shaw, Tim Dowler-Coltman, R Austin Ball, Olivia Barrett, Stephanie Moore, Luke Humphrey and Deanna Jarvis. Directed by Sofia Coppola. [Running Time: 1:53]

Priscilla SEX/NUDITY 4

 – A man and a teen girl spend numerous days in bed together kissing and hugging and we see food left outside the door; they take pictures of each other and she wears skimpy outfits that reveal cleavage, bare abdomen and back, and partial bare buttocks, while the man’s pajama top is open in a few scenes and we see his bare chest and abdomen.
► A wife sits next to her husband on a bed and asks if he is OK; he kisses her, pushes her back on the bed and straddles her kissing her hard and she pushes him away (he then leaves the room). A husband and his wife kiss at their wedding and he later carries her and places her on a bed where they kiss (sex is implied). A man is shown in bed with a woman that is not his wife and sex is implied (we see the man’s bare chest and abdomen and the woman’s bare back). A teen girl goes upstairs in a young man’s home and changes into a nightgown (we see her bare shoulders and legs to the upper thighs), applies perfume and climbs into bed with the young man (he is clothed); they kiss while lying down, the man takes a pill (presumably a sleeping aid), gives one to the teen, she kisses him, he pushes her away and they fall asleep. A man and a teen girl kiss in bed and he tells her, “Don’t get carried away,” and stops her from continuing to kiss him, saying, “This is sacred to me.” A young man asks a teen girl to go to his room with him while people are gathered for a party and she does; they sit on a sofa and he touches her hand tenderly, and then kisses her. A man kisses a teen girl.
► A wife kisses her husband, trying to seduce him and he rebuffs her saying that he doesn’t want to hurt her (after she has given birth). A young man kisses a teen girl in a car after driving her home. A young man kisses a teen girl on the shoulder. A young man picks up a teen girl and twirls her around and he tells her that she looks beautiful as he looks at her lovingly. A young woman kisses a man on the cheek and he rebuffs her; she yells at him and he threatens to leave to be with another woman. A man reads passages from the Bible to several women gathered around him; he tells one young woman that he likes her perfume and leans toward her, causing another young woman to leave the room in tears.
► A young man asks to see a teen girl at a party at his house. A man tells a young woman that he had an affair with another woman. A woman appears to be flirting with a man that is not her husband. A man tells a teen girl to dye her hair black and wear more eye makeup. A man describes a woman having a “body like a man.” Women at a party remark that a teen girl and romantic interest of a young man is “young.” A man proposes to a young woman and they kiss. A young woman tells her husband that she is pregnant and that she is scared.
► A teen girl tries on dresses in a store, men watch and evaluate the dresses and the teen says that she thinks they are too sophisticated for her; a couple of dresses reveal cleavage. A poster shows a woman wearing a bikini and we see cleavage, bare abdomen and legs to the hips. A teen girl wears a cropped top that reveals her bare abdomen. People at a pool party wear swimsuits (we see the bare chests, abdomens, backs and legs of men, and cleavage and the legs of women). A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage.
► A teen girl is shown applying makeup and nail polish in a few scenes. Several nuns outside a graduation ceremony pose for pictures with Elvis. A young woman is rushed to a hospital to deliver a baby and we see her later holding the newborn.

Priscilla VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – A man gives a teen girl a sleeping drug and after two days struggles to wake her up; she eventually wakes up and seems OK. A man throws a chair at a young woman and she ducks avoiding being struck (it dents the wall behind her). A man and a teen girl have a pillow fight in bed and the man becomes upset and hits the teen hard with a pillow (she holds her face and leaves the room; we don’t see any injuries). A man and a woman argue bitterly and he calls her aggressive and demanding when she confronts him about his infidelity; he yells and throws things out of a closet and tells her to pack and leave.
► A man and a young woman argue and he tells her to leave. A teen girl’s parents won’t allow her to attend a party where she will meet a famous singer and she becomes upset and later tells her parents, “Don’t ruin my life.” A teen girl tells a man, “Maybe the pills are too much,” and he dismisses her concern. A man tells a teen girl that he doesn’t like her dress and she becomes upset and slams a door. A teen girl convinces another teen girl to give her answers for an exam and tells her that she will take her to meet Elvis in exchange.
► A young man shares his grief over his mother’s death and that they had been very close. A teen girl worries that a young man will forget her when he goes away. A teen girl’s parents try to dissuade her from thinking about a young man when he goes away and they tell her that he will likely forget about her. A woman tells a teen girl that she cannot be “outside making a public display of herself” when she sits in a yard playing with her dog. A man tells a teen girl that she has to choose between him and a career when she says that it might be fun to work part-time in a clothing store. A teen girl becomes sad and jealous when reading numerous gossip magazines about a man having affairs with actresses while working on movies together. A young man describes hitting a ball toward a woman and that she dodged it, so he calls her “Dodger.” A man says, “Evil spirits control our desires.”
► A man gives a teen girl a handgun and we see her taking target practice shooting at bottles; we later see her matching several handguns with dresses like accessories. A glass of what looks like whiskey tips off the top of a piano and a young man playing the piano catches it before it spills. A man drives a bulldozer and begins tearing down a rundown building. A man throws several books on a fire to burn them. While under the influence of LSD, a young woman tells a man, “Your shirt is breathing.”
► People gamble in a few casino scenes. A teen girl moves away from home to live with a man. Two men toss another man into a swimming pool.

Priscilla LANGUAGE 5

 – About 2 F-words, 1 anatomical term, 2 mild obscenities, name-calling (Dodger, crazed, aggressive, crazy, demanding, silly, dumb, out of your mind), exclamations (be a good girl, what’s a Beatle), 11 religious profanities (GD), 7 religious exclamations (e.g. oh God, I swear to God, Christ, oh my God, Jesus Christ, God, a man reads passages from the Bible). | profanity glossary |

Priscilla SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man and a young woman take LSD and we see them undergoing the influences of the drug and seeming to hallucinate, a man gives a teen girl pills to help her wake up and to fall asleep, a young man gives a teen girl a pill and tells her to take it to help her stay awake in school, a man takes pills to sleep and gives them to a teen girl in many scenes (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details), a man passes out a handful of unidentified pills to people in a casino scene, and after a violent outburst a teen girl tells a man that maybe the pills he is taking are too much. People are seen drinking liquor and champagne in a few casino scenes, people drink wine with a meal, men and women are shown drinking from bottles (the content is unclear) in several scenes, and a glass of what looks like whiskey tips off the top of a piano and a young man playing the piano catches it before it spills. People are shown smoking cigarettes in many scenes throughout the movie.

Priscilla DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Priscilla Presley, Elvis Presley, drug use, rock and roll music, exploitation, controlling relationships, possessiveness, philosophy, infidelity, making friends, life on military bases.

Priscilla MESSAGE

 – Fame and drugs can make reality and relationships hard to accept.