The Last Showgirl (2024)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Believe the hype - Pamela Anderson gives a career-defining performance that is as good as you have heard.
Made for $2 million, The Last Showgirl is a movie that leaves everything it has on the screen and pours its heart into every frame.
A film full of great performances and a redemptive arc for Anderson’s career.
NO
I know this is an independent film and we are trying all we can to get it made but, respectfully, stop moving the camera in every single scene.
The screenplay lapses into cliche and heavy-handed dialogue at times which the ensemble tries to elevate. They can only do so much.
There is a lack of polish to all of this which some may find endearing and authentic and others will find as inconsequential and dismissable.
OUR REVIEW
For every person who has had a taste of fame and success, the pursuit of happiness becomes, to quote Nicki Minaj, less about celebrity and more about “seeing a life without struggle.”
A definite introvert who somehow makes it through public speaking events when I have to, someone far more extroverted than myself once described performing on stage as this adrenaline rush of excitement, enthusiasm, trust, and vulnerability all rolled into one. “There’s nothing like it,” he shared. “You have no idea.”
Entire cities are built on the promise of what might be and what could have been. Countless people have moved to New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Las Vegas to chase that rush of excitement, enthusiasm, and everything else that comes with performance and being on stage. There’s hope present in those decisions. And for many, there’s an unwavering belief that they are on the cusp of something big, even when auditions become rejections and missed opportunities. The internal monologue seems to say, “ If I can just get in front of the right person, or if the right person sees me, then everything I am pursuing will be worth it.”
They think they will earn that “life without struggle.”
In Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl, we embed ourselves for a few days with Shelly, a 30-plus year veteran of a showgirl club on the Las Vegas strip. Embodied in a riveting performance by Pamela Anderson, Shelly is the centerpiece of a messy, frazzled movie held together by Anderson’s commitment to capturing the addictive nature of performing and the sacrifices that come at a cost when suddenly you realize that everything you have poured into your career has come crashing to a halt and perhaps not reaped the dividends you thought it would.
Anderson gives the performance of her career in The Last Showgirl, similar to what Mickey Rourke summoned in his staggering performance in 2008’s The Wrestler. Anderson herself was seldom taken seriously in her career. From breaking through as a buxom lifeguard on “Baywatch,” she was mocked for failing to become a box office superstar with “Barb Wire.” Denigrated and exploited after the high-profile release of a sex tape with former husband Tommy Lee, Anderson’s bleached blonde locks, centerfold-ready body, and inability to find scripts and stories that showcased her strengths made her a joke and an afterthought.
Anderson, not all that dissimilar from Demi Moore’s character in The Substance, is the consummate example of the damaging scars a celebrity can be forced to wear. Scraped for everything people could get out of her, when there was deemed to be nothing left, she was tossed in the scrap heap. A punchline for many, Anderson was on a path to becoming just another celebrity who has a Wikipedia page and some provocative videos online for the rest of time.
And yet, she never really went away. She was consistently working, popping up here and there on reality television and celebrity competition shows. Quietly, Anderson was reclaiming her career one project at a time, even appearing as Roxie Hart for a few months in a Broadway revival of “Chicago.”
Here, she not only gets the last laugh but shows us what has been waiting to emerge. Bruised and battered, Shelly is a mother to so many, but struggles to be a mother to her own adult daughter, Hannah (Billie Lourd). Calling her mother by her first name, Hannah has lingering, simmering anger growing up with a single parent that performed multiple times per night, couldn’t afford babysitting, and would place Hannah in a locked car in the parking lot night after night.
Many films have showcased how people can be nurturers in one setting, but struggle to be the same with their biological children and loved ones. In those moments, Coppola’s film offers a number of formulaic scenes we have seen play out in numerous other films. Anderson holds our attention because she is scrambling to find the right words and the right reaction to make something matter in her relationship. Without Hannah, she has an old club, costumes that are outdated, and a best friend, Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), who sees the writing on the wall as an aging cocktail waitress who left the showgirl world behind.
Curtis is a force, almost stealing too much of the movie away. Anderson finds really wonderful moments with Dave Bautista, who plays Eddie, the manager of Le Razzle Dazzle who may be the only person in Shelly’s life who truly sees her and everything she has put into her performances.
Shot for less than $2 million, The Last Showgirl is a movie that feels like an underdog. From Anderson’s casting to the slightly-dated look and feel of the film, this is gritty, labor-of-love filmmaking. You want to root for it, just as you want Shelly to find peace and happiness in her life. When it stumbles, with heavy-handed dialogue creeping in from Kate Gersten’s screenplay and Coppola’s insistence that cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw keeps her camera constantly moving, it is easy to become frustrated with some of the movie’s unforced errors.
The power lies with Anderson. Quite skilled here, she easily holds her own with Curtis’ over-the-top theatrics and Bautista’s gentleness. She steals your heart and the film becomes as much about Pamela Anderson’s personal redemption as it is about her creating a moving, genuine performance.
There’s a little razzle dazzle still left. Anderson’s eyes have that twinkle again. With a steely resolve, her raspy, whispery voice seizes the moment and shows everyone that this “last showgirl” has much more to offer a world so willing to dismiss and disregard her.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Billie Lourd, Kieran Shipka, Brenda Song, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Gia Coppola
Written by: Kate Gersten
Release Date: December 13, 2024
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