Last Showgirl, The | Reelview’s movie reviews

Looking at The Last ShowgirlI couldn’t help but be reminded of the lyrics to 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 has lost her mind…

I don’t mean to say that director Gia Coppola and screenwriter Kate Gersten adapted “Copacabana” to The Last Showgirlbut it’s hard to ignore the similarities. In fact, one could argue that the song has a deeper, more complex narrative than the film, whose story can be boiled down to a single sentence: an aging showgirl who, for the first time in 35 years, is faced with no 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 is not A woman under the influence. The twist is that Shelly (Pamela Anderson) has been the star of the Vegas revue “Razzle Dazzle” since 1987. Its successful days are long gone 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), are out of a job. 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 supports her struggling best friend, Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), and tries to reconnect with her estranged daughter, Hannah (Billy Lourd).

thematic, The Last Showgirl travels the well-traveled path of how women prized for their youth and sexiness are often discarded as they age. The film’s most brutal scene, in which a director (Jason Schwartzman in a blistering cameo) condemns 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 basic. The substance addressed the same issues but in a more compelling way.

Shelly is hopelessly out of touch, having created a bubble around her reality that allows her to believe in the validity of certain questionable choices (like essentially abandoning her daughter). She has romanticized the revue she appears in and imbued it with a meaning that no one else sees. At 57, she has seen her life pass her by with little to show for it – a truth she is forced to face when she learns that “Razzle Dazzle” is coming to an end. Although The Last Showgirl does a decent job of fleshing out and shaping Shelly’s character, it doesn’t provide the same degree of depth to any of the others who float by as nice and jetsam in her stream. They exist to enhance aspects of Shelly’s personality, acting more as plot devices than real characters.

Most of the talk about The Last Showgirl relates to Pamela Anderson’s performance. The former ’80s and ’90s star, brought out of retirement after being lobbied by Coppola, shows a different side of herself here – one that, by choice, is at odds with the image she’s held onto the height of her popularity when she was all about breasts, butts, BaywatchandBarbed wire. Her work in The Last Showgirl is very good, a moving portrayal of a woman she can relate to. Her facial expressions are revealing and she delivers her lines with credibility. But here’s the thing – she’s “amazing” only in the sense that she’s much better than expected. She deserves some credit for what she has accomplished The Last Showgirl– a solid, artisanal piece of acting – but not awards. A similar argument can be made about Dave Bautista, who blows away previous notions of his limitations in front of a camera.

A strong case can be made against it The Last Showgirlthat Shelly isn’t interesting enough to deserve a movie all to herself. The film is hampered by its obvious low budget (the set design in particular is underwhelming) and Coppola’s love of shaky-cam techniques. Anderson’s performance is the selling point, but one can rightly question whether it’s enough to bolster the undernourished narrative.

Last Showgirl, The (USA, 2024)