Best Picture Power Rankings and ‘Priscilla’ With Sofia Coppola!

'Priscilla'Sofia Coppola's Elvis-and-me biopic

Priscilla 2023

Coppola's adaptation of Priscilla Presley's memoir 'Elvis and Me,' told entirely through Priscilla's eyes, from being scouted at 14 on a German air base to leaving Graceland in the '70s. Kaley Spaeny (introduced to Coppola by Kirsten Dunst) plays across 20 years; 6-foot-5 Jacob Elordi towers over her as Elvis. Sean calls it Coppola's best since 'Lost in Translation.' Denied the rights to Elvis's music, the film ends on Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' as Priscilla drives out the recreated Graceland gates (built to scale in Toronto). An anti-biopic that never moralizes.

Lost in Translation 2003

Comes up again and again: another young woman in a closed space with a damaged older man; Sean rewatched it and notes how much of it is really about Bob's depression.

Marie Antoinette 2006

Amanda's champion, in the middle of a reclamation; she frames 'Priscilla' as part of the same project, reinterpreting a misunderstood wife who speaks through clothes and images.

The Virgin Suicides 1999

Cited for its imposing father (the James Woods character) and its male heartthrob; Sean compares Elordi's Elvis to Josh Hartnett's Trip Fontaine.

Somewhere 2010

Sean's pick for Coppola's last tier-one film before the experiments.

The Bling Ring 2013

One of the outliers; Sean likes that she tried it but says she can't be that crass even when she wants to.

The Beguiled 2017

The other outlier from the core Coppola mode, pushed to the side relative to the rest.

On the Rocks 2020

Filed with the mid-period experiments; fine but not top-tier.

Elvis 2022

Baz Luhrmann's opulent version, the deliberate contrast: 'Priscilla' is smaller, claustrophobic, and finds Elvis more interesting for being less flattered.

Top Five Wife MoviesAmanda's list: can't be about the couple, only the experience of being a wife

No. 1

Rebecca 1940

No. 1: the Hitchcock version; whichever wife you are, it seems tough.

No. 2

The Stepford Wives 1975

No. 2: Amanda loves it, Paula Prentiss especially; hard to find on physical media, eventually located on Tubi.

No. 3

The First Wives Club 1996

No. 3: being a wife did suck, then they figured out how to be friends instead; Amanda's total-cinema hill to die on.

No. 4

Jackie 2016

No. 4: Amanda's 'famous wife' pick, the best version of Pablo Larraín's experiment.

No. 5

Priscilla 2023

No. 5: offered as the fifth slot (Maestro was the alternative, but it breaks the no-marriage rule).

'Nyad'Chin & Vasarhelyi's Netflix swim drama

Nyad 2023

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's first feature, on Diana Nyad's Cuba-to-Florida swim. Annette Bening is grouchy for two hours; Jodie Foster cooks as coach Bonnie Stoll; Rhys Ifans is a welcome surprise. Sean calls it an eminently watchable two-and-a-half-star movie: a fine, perfect-for-the-holidays sports film undercut by trauma flashbacks that feel like a different movie and one CGI sequence that flipped him out of it. Shot by Claudio Miranda.

Best Picture Power RankingsSean and Amanda rank the ten they picked on October 10th; The Color Purple and All of Us Strangers dropped out, Past Lives and Zone of Interest came in

No. 1

Oppenheimer 2023

No. 1: the runaway leader.

No. 2

The Holdovers 2023

No. 2: the wave is coming; Amanda hasn't seen it yet but is looking forward to loving it.

No. 3

Killers of the Flower Moon 2023

No. 3.

No. 4

Poor Things 2023

No. 4.

No. 5

Barbie 2023

No. 5.

No. 6

American Fiction 2023

No. 6.

No. 7

Maestro 2023

No. 7: awards and moviegoing crowd will like it; the wider Netflix audience may be baffled.

No. 8

May December 2023

No. 8: Amanda's chaotic swap-in, at the expense of The Color Purple and All of Us Strangers; neither host has seen it.

No. 9

Past Lives 2023

No. 9.

No. 10

The Zone of Interest 2023

No. 10: the international slot, edging out Anatomy of a Fall for the final spot.

In conversationSean interviews Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola on

Priscilla 2023

Coppola on finding an old '80s copy of the memoir, keeping a running list of questions for Priscilla Presley, building Graceland to scale in Toronto (William Eggleston photos as reference), casting Spaeny and Elordi, and the Dolly Parton needle drop that bookends Priscilla's arrival and departure.

Sofia Coppola on

Past Lives 2023

Coppola's last-great-thing: saw it at the Angelika, loved Greta Lee and how subtle and sincere it was.

Also mentioned raised along the way

Jacob Elordi elsewhere Deep WaterThe Sweet EastSaltburnOh, CanadaThe Kissing Booth

Kaley Spaeny elsewhere Bad Times at the El RoyaleOn the Basis of SexViceCivil WarAlien: Romulus

In passing (Priscilla talk) The FabelmansBohemian RhapsodyPhantom ThreadThe Hateful EightThe Killer

Wife-movie tangents Husbands and WivesHusbandsRevolutionary Road

Claudio Miranda's filmography Failure to LaunchThe Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonZodiacTron: LegacyLife of PiOblivionTomorrowlandOnly the BraveTop Gun: MaverickSpiderheadMargaretF1

Nyad talk Free SoloPain Hustlers

Best Picture bubble & bets BabylonThe Devil Wears PradaFive Nights at Freddy'sAnatomy of a FallNapoleonFerrariAirRustinSpider-Man: Across the Spider-VerseThe Color PurpleAll of Us Strangers

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV EuphoriaSuccession

Video games Spider-Man 2Super Mario Bros. WonderAlan WakeFive Nights at Freddy's (game)Assassin's Creed Mirage

Ads Button MashFIFA World Cup (Netflix)CarvanaBoar's Head