Photo © A24 Films
Priscilla
Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi in ‘Priscilla’
The Night of the 12th
(Film Movement DVD/Digital)
Clara, a teenage woman, walks home on a dark night, chatting on her cellphone, when a hooded assailant strikes. She’s murdered in an especially brutal manner, and the homicide squad from the nearest city is dispatched to her small town in the French Alps to investigate.
The Night of the 12th (2022) is a taut, subtle thriller with a keen eye for forensic procedures as well as the psychological trauma of crime—and the crime fighters who numb themselves with gallows humor. How do you tell parents that their daughter is dead? How do you sort out the dodgy boyfriends of a girl who, in her father’s words, “fell in love easily”? Director Dominik Moll’s film is elegantly edited and presented, unfolding with the slow but deliberate pace of good police work. (David Luhrssen)
Priscilla
(In Theaters Nov. 3)
Sofia Coppola adapted Priscilla Beaulieu Presley’s memoir, Elvis and Me, for this film that chronicles her meeting, loving, and eventually leaving, Elvis Presley. Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) was 14 when 24-year-old Presley (Jacob Elordi) entered her life in West Germany. Due in some measure to the King’s courtly Southern charm, the pair made an emotional connection that turned Priscilla into Presley’s obsession, and led to her moving to Graceland, where she finished high school and waited for Elvis to determine the right time to wed. Her seclusion, and loneliness while Elvis was off making movies, defines this period during which the Presley family bossed her around. As time went on, Priscilla’s appearance and behaviors were dictated by Elvis. Coppola’s two-hour, R-Rated drama captures an achy-breaky portrait of love and pain that endured—until it no longer could. (Lisa Miller)
What Happens Later
Willa (Meg Ryan) and Bill (David Duchovny) are initially shocked when they run into run one another at a Midwestern airport. They haven’t spoken since breaking-up 25 years earlier. Their chance encounter should consist of a brief “It’s been nice seeing you,” but fate extends the visit because their flights are delayed. They have a drink and discover their different versions of the romance and its end. Just as their reunion spirals into a series of recriminations, a snowstorm cancels all flights for the night. More time for arguing, examining and discovering, that at 60 years old, both still feel they lost “the love of my life.” Willa has remained a free spirit but is lonely and disillusioned. Bill is recently separated and feels trapped in a job he doesn’t like. Adapted from Steven Dietz’s play Shooting Star, Meg Ryan directs and worked with Dietz to weave his monologues into the dialog. After an 8-year onscreen absence, it’s nice to see Ryan bring the warmth, humor, strengths and vulnerabilities that define her romantic comedies. (Lisa Miller)
