The Last Showgirl, 2024.
Directed by Gia Coppola.
Starring Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Billie Lourd, John Clofine, Jason Schwartzman, and Patrick Hilgart.
SYNOPSIS:
A seasoned showgirl must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run.
At one point during Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl (from a screenplay by Kate Gersten), the camera observes Pamela Anderson’s Las Vegas strip casino veteran showgirl, Shelley, alone at night, mimicking classy dance moves on the television. This is also intercut with much younger co-showgirl Kiernan Shipka’s Jodie attending and enjoying a far dirtier, more sexually explicit show that has not only slowly replaced shows like Le Razzle Dazzle routine Shelley has enthusiastically been a part of for 30+ years while defending its artistic merits, but is also about to put that final one out of business.
It’s a visually striking juxtaposition that plays into the themes on the surface, and layered subtext should one bring to the conversation Pamela Anderson’s career as a blonde bombshell actress who also ended up in steamy scandals. Here, she is playing someone justifiably frustrated that her chosen industry doesn’t see the value in these shows anymore if they aren’t bringing in money, doubling down on more suggestive, nudity-driven shows played for laughs while also targeting the most conventionally attractive and youngest women they can legally cast.
Shelley has given everything to her show for three decades, has fostered motherly dynamics with her younger co-showgirls, and is always about three seconds away from lecturing everyone about the French roots of the show, the beauty of it, and how it matters. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of her peers don’t see it that way. Such as Brenda Song’s Mary-Anne, who finds it pointless and demeaning but a job nonetheless and would happily take one of the aforementioned sexually explicit gigs if the showrunners didn’t regularly reject her for aging, having a smaller bust, and more concerned with nabbing girls “right after they turn 18”, in her words. Shelley is also a longtime friend of former showgirl turned cocktail waitress Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), who faces similar unfair treatment centered around age and is the more interesting character to be around by having the more nuanced performance.
The Last Showgirl has a lot on its mind, not just as a snapshot into this specific world (with a fitting dreamlike score from Andrew Wyatt) but also regarding larger questions surrounding life as a woman and meta-subtext surrounding Pamela Anderson. For about 30 minutes, it’s also quite a compelling film; the camaraderie between the women is believable, and they seem to occasionally get together as if they are a surrogate family brought together by life. Dave Bautista is also here as Le Razzle Dazzle’s producer, a quiet and softspoken man who genuinely seems to empathize with Shelley’s sadness at not only the smaller paychecks (one of the shows only sells roughly 12 tickets) but the heartbreaking news that the show will be closing for good in a couple of weeks.
However, the remaining hour essentially plays as if the filmmakers don’t know what to do with the story from there, so they pile on cloying drama and eye-rolling revelations. There are character dynamics and relationships here that could have worked if the film sincerely felt interested in exploring them rather than dumping them on viewers in a misguided, aimless attempt to have something happening in the narrative. By the time the story gets at the sacrifices Shelley has made alongside some other questions about the unfair paths and choices women tend to have regarding family, artistic passion, and careers, The Last Show has descended into soapy, overcranked, and overwritten melodrama.
Part of that family drama involves a somewhat neglected daughter, played by Billie Lourd, who felt abandoned and was placed into the care of alternative guardians at some point. She doesn’t understand why her mom loved the performance art so much that she left her daughter in the car with a Game Boy instead of taking a standard, soul-draining, non-sexually provocative job with regular hours. It leads viewers to believe that Le Razzle Dazzle, despite the classier nature of the dancing, was intensely adult-oriented where the dancers were nude, except when we finally see it performed (which is competently shot and evokes the sense of beauty Shelley perceives in it), it’s tame and left the question of why her daughter feels ashamed and outraged by it. Yes, she feels like her mom chose this over her, but there is also a disconnect between how the show is talked about and the performance on-screen.
For anyone hoping or believing the buzz that Pamela Anderson shows some legitimate acting chops, think again. This is a showy performance for sure, pun intended, but also bluntly an unconvincing one that too often goes for either big quirky or dramatic beats that she can’t handle. Unquestionably, this role is personal to Pamela Anderson and some of those shows, but The Last Showgirl ditches its intriguing themes for hokey personal life storytelling that lets her down in the process. It’s a film that takes every cheap road to inject unnecessary additional drama when the premise has already provided more than enough.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
