The Last Showgirl (R)
Cast: Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kiernan Shipka, Dave Bautista
Release Date: December 13, 2024
Runtime: 1 hr. 29 mins.
Genre: Drama
The Last Showgirl, a poignant film of resilience, rhinestones and feathers, stars Pamela Anderson as Shelley, a glamorous showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run. Directed by Gia Coppola, The Last Showgirl co-stars Oscar®, SAG® Award and Golden Globe® winner Jamie Lee Curtis, as Shelley’s best friend, who brings her own unique interpretation and brilliance to the story, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka and Billie Lourd. Written by Kate Gersten, the film is produced by Robert Schwartzman, Natalie Farrey, Gia Coppola and features a new original song “Beautiful That Way,” sung by pop superstar Miley Cyrus, produced by Academy Award nominee Andrew Wyatt and written by Wyatt, Cyrus, and Lykke Li.
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Watching The Last Showgirl, I couldn't help but be reminded of the lyrics of the 1978 Barry Manilow song, "Copacabana":
Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl
But that was thirty years ago, when they used to have a show
Now it's a disco, but not for Lola
Still in the dress she used to wear
Faded feathers in her hair
She sits there so refined, and drinks herself half-blind
She lost her youth and she lost her Tony
Now she's lost her mind...
I don't mean to say that director Gia Coppola and screenwriter Kate Gersten adapted "Copacabana" into The Last Showgirl, but it's hard to ignore the similarities. Actually, one could make an argument that the song has a deeper, more complex narrative than the film, whose storyline can be boiled down to a single sentence: an aging showgirl, faced for the first time in 35 years without a place in the spotlight, takes a look back at her life and choices and claims she has no regrets.
As indie character studies go, this isn't A Woman Under the Influence. The nuts and bolts are that Shelly (Pamela Anderson) has been the star of the Vegas revue "Razzle Dazzle" since 1987. Its successful days are long past and the hotel has decided to pivot to something more modern. As a result, Shelly and her younger co-stars, Mary-Anne (Brenda Song) and Jodie (Kiernan Shipka), find themselves without jobs. The show's producer, Eddie (Dave Bautista), who once had a romantic relationship with Shelly, has been offered an opportunity to produce the replacement for "Razzle Dazzle." Meanwhile, Shelly is providing support for her struggling best friend, Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), and attempting to reconnect with her estranged daughter, Hannah (Billy Lourd).
Thematically, The Last Showgirl travels the well-traveled pathways about how women, prized for their youth and sexiness, are often discarded when they become older. The film's most brutal scene, in which a director (Jason Schwartzman in a blistering cameo) castigates Shelly for being old and untrained, is all-the-more difficult to watch because it expresses an ugly but undeniable reality. Modern culture has no place for loyalty or commitment; its needs are base. The Substance addressed these same issues but in a more compelling fashion.
Shelly is hopelessly out-of-touch, having created a bubble around her reality that allows her to believe in the validity of certain dubious choices (like essentially abandoning her daughter). She has romanticized the revue in which she appears, imbuing it with an importance that no one else sees. At 57 years old, she has seen her life pass her by with little to show for it - a truth she is forced to face once she learns that "Razzle Dazzle" is ending. Although The Last Showgirl does a decent job crafting and shaping Shelly's character, it doesn't provide the same degree of depth for any of the others who float by like flotsam and jetsam in her stream. They exist to enhance aspects of Shelly's personality, functioning more as plot devices than real characters.
Most of the talk about The Last Showgirl relates to Pamela Anderson's performance. Drawn out of retirement after being lobbied by Coppola, the former ‘80s and ‘90s star shows a different side of herself here - one that is, by choice, at variance with the image she maintained at the height of her popularity, when she was all about boobs, butts, Baywatch, and Barb Wire. Her work in The Last Showgirl is very good, a moving portrayal of a woman she may relate to. Her facial expressions are revealing and she delivers her lines with credibility. But here's the thing - she's "great" only in the sense that she's much better than expectations. She deserves a degree of praise for what she has achieved in The Last Showgirl - a solid, workmanlike piece of acting - but not awards. A similar argument can be made about Dave Bautista, who blows away previous notions about his limitations in front of a camera.
A strong case can be made against The Last Showgirl that Shelly isn't sufficiently interesting to deserve a movie all to her own. The film is hampered by its evident low budget (the set design in particular is underwhelming) and Coppola's affection for shaky-cam techniques. Anderson's performance is the selling point but one can rightly question whether it's enough to bolster the malnourished narrative.
© 2024 James Berardinelli
Synopsis
The Last Showgirl, a poignant film of resilience, rhinestones and feathers, stars Pamela Anderson as Shelley, a glamorous showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run. Directed by Gia Coppola, The Last Showgirl co-stars Oscar®, SAG® Award and Golden Globe® winner Jamie Lee Curtis, as Shelley’s best friend, who brings her own unique interpretation and brilliance to the story, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka and Billie Lourd. Written by Kate Gersten, the film is produced by Robert Schwartzman, Natalie Farrey, Gia Coppola and features a new original song “Beautiful That Way,” sung by pop superstar Miley Cyrus, produced by Academy Award nominee Andrew Wyatt and written by Wyatt, Cyrus, and Lykke Li.