“The Last Showgirl” (2024) stars Pamela Anderson as Shelly Gardner, a dancer who performed at Le Razzle Dazzle for thirty years. Unfolding over the course of fifteen days, Shelly reflects whether her career was worth all the sacrifices and what lies ahead. Writer Kate Gersten’s first feature story is the perfect complement to “The Substance” (2024). The cast, especially Anderson, are pitch perfect, but my kingdom for a tripod to give to director Gia Coppola, granddaughter to Francis Ford Coppola, who favors a handheld camera, uncomfortable closeups and lens flares.
Though I probably saw “Barb Wire” (1996), I’m unfamiliar with Anderson’s work. Never watched an episode of “Baywatch.” As Shelly, Anderson feels as if she is channeling Marilyn Monroe and Britney Spears in addition to her own experiences in the world as a sex figure who is more than her image. Her blonde hair and breathy, high voice offer a lightness to a character who is almost autistic in her obsession with dance, history and calling. For Shelly, life as a Las Vegas showgirl connotes devotion to art, not seediness, and she clutches her metaphorical pearls at the crassness of the available dance offerings as glorified stripper jobs. Her living room is decorated like a theater stage, and her flat screen television only plays classic dance movies. Most of “The Last Showgirl” shows her backstage in the dressing room or as an ordinary person going about her daily life so a painful question starts to emerge: is she a good dance or just a delusional, big talker? Can she survive once Le Razzle Dazzle closes? It may be her creative calling, but she also needs to pay rent and feed herself. It feels like “Pearl” (2022) all over again. She is naturally excitable, insecure and nervous, but also defiant, proud and unbroken. If someone tried to persuade her to use the substance, she would metaphorically slap the taste out of their mouth. If she is going down, it won’t be without a fight, and it is joy to see her get angrier with each day that passes.
Ghost of showgirl past, Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), is Shelly’s foil and friend, a former showgirl with a gambling addiction who became a cocktail waitress at a casino. Curtis, who has always been that girl with the body, delivers a tits out, ass up performance as the hard living, tanned leather skinned face, chain smoking Annette, a cynical, practical good time girl who is not a dreamer like Shelly, but cares about dancing and misses it. They are former coworkers whose friendship lasted longer than the job. I want a prequel with Anderson and Curtis reprising their roles before Annette got fired. Curtis steals every scene whether she is busting balls, letting some rando stuff a chip in her cleavage or dancing on a table for herself. Shelly has more financial sense, but there is otherwise little that separates them.
Shelly’s younger coworkers, Jodie (Kiernan Shipka, “Red One”) and Mary-Anne (Brenda Song, Kieran Culkin’s wife), are like contemporary counterparts to Shelly and Annette. Mary-Anne just wants a job, and Jodie uses the job to not only pay the bills, but to audition substitutes for her birth family. Jodie sees Shelly as a mom, which Shelly initially accepts until her actual daughter, Hannah (Billie Lourd, who resembles Sara Gilbert in this role and really diverges from her usual enjoyable deadpan schtick), visits and takes out her childhood trauma, quarterlife crisis and insecurity over career prospects on Shelly. Shelly and Jodie could be the salve for each other’s wounds, but they wind up being triggers. It may be the saddest part of “The Last Showgirl.” Spoiler alert: Mary-Anne and Annette are the real ones, the ride or dies, despite their hard edge.
Dave Bautista is the best wrestler turned actor, and as Eddie, he serves several functions. Initially “The Last Showgirl” seemed to be offering him as a romantic escape hatch for Shelly to rest on, but the plot twist is magnificent. Maybe I’m losing my edge, but I did not see it coming. Also, unlike the women, Eddie has job security and benefits. If the venue is open, he has a role. Gersten makes it a constant theme that the women, especially Shelly, are the stars, but they get nickel-and-dimed on costume repairs and can lose their job because it is based on looks. Bautista delivers a subtle performance because he initially presents as a gentle, taciturn guy, not a leering lech, which he is not. Annette cannot stand him, and the seeds of his obliviousness and entitlement gradually begin to emerge. In retrospect, he seems reasonable, but once he turns, it is a soft spoken abrupt insidious voice that gnaws away at the soul.
I despise when most films or television series use the media in res trope, and “The Last Showgirl” is no exception. It only needed to be shown once and in the final act. Shelly auditions with an initially unseen casting director, whom a superb character actor plays. Hint: he is the brother of one of the producers. It is a moment when the truth confronts her, and moviegoers finally get to see her dance, but the best performance happens after the music stops. Shelly stands on stage and engages him and can give as good as she takes. Unfortunately Coppola’s camera movement and framing are frustrating. The camera does not have to move when the character moves. Prioritizing using the camera to highlight the characters’ emotional state detracts from the performance, which is a criminal act because they are outstanding. Also stop cutting away during a dance number and do a shot long enough to frame the entire body. Cameras can pan. Everything does not have to be a cut.
The atmosphere in “The Last Showgirl” and “Support The Girls” (2018) is similar though they are shot in different locations. There is no nature except for the sun and weather otherwise everything is concrete and cars. The alleged mystique of the women in professions predicated on sexual desirability live in apartments, drive cars, etc. They live ordinary and often drab lives where the interior spaces are lit as if it is dark outside, but the sun is blaring, which was a constant surprise. Las Vegas is deliberately designed to mask time passing, which is a sinister deception that entraps people like Shelly who pay the price for the clock ticking. It is a one-sided deal, and Shelly wants them to make good on their deal.
Fortunately “The Last Showgirl” is not one of those movies that makes Shelly delusional. She knows that she needs a job and must move on. Demi Moore said in a recent interview that she makes choices by asking herself, “What do I want to feel like?” Shelly answers, “Feeling seen, feeling beautiful, that is powerful. And I can’t imagine life without it.” Shelly enjoyed how being a showgirl made her feel and spent her life prioritizing her experience over being a wife, a mother or playing it safe despite the naysayers. She may not have done what was right for others, but she did what was right for her. In the end, she does not have to imagine life without it because at her nadir, she knew that she is still beautiful and powerful.
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What is Parisian Lido culture? No idea, but here is a link that talks about it.
