The Last Showgirl plus Short Takes on some other cinematic topics
What Begins in Vegas Might Well End in Vegas
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
The Last Showgirl (Gia Coppola) rated R 88 min.
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
WHAT HAPPENS: Shelly Gardner (Pamela Anderson)—age 57 but in an audition shown at the beginning, again later she first says she’s 36, then “corrects” herself to 42—has been dancing for 38 years in Le Razzle Dazzle, a French-style revue on the Las Vegas Strip, but she, and her close colleagues, burlesque dancers Mary-Anne (Brenda Song) and Jodie (Kiernan Shipka), along with long-time friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), who used to be in the show but was kicked out so now she’s a cocktail waitress, are shocked to be told by stage manager Eddie (Dave Bautista) their act is to be closed in 2 weeks, taken over by a more-contemporary circus show that’s already pushed Le Razzle Dazzle aside on Thursday through Saturday nights at the venue. Mary-Anne and Jodie set out to audition for other shows, but Shelly’s told when she attempts such survival that her dancing’s not all that great, she just was able to launch a career decades ago because of her good looks and charming personality. Shelly also tries to patch things up with her semi-estranged daughter, Hannah (Billie Lourd), who’s lived for years with family friends in Arizona due to Shelly’s emphasis on her career; Hannah’s now on the verge of college graduation even as Mom has no idea what her major is (nor her age), so Shelly’s attempted reconnection doesn’t go well, especially after Hannah attends Le Razzle Dazzle, finds it to be distasteful with Shelly, offended, storming out of her dressing room.
More complications arise when Jodie comes to Shelly’s home, distraught because her mother won’t talk to her; however, Shelly’s in no mood to be supportive, sends the young woman away so next night at the show Jodie won’t help Shelly with her costume, leading to a rip for which she’ll be fined even as the act is in its final days. Then Shelly and Eddie have dinner where she’s upset about no new job prospects while he’ll be kept on at the theater; the major revelation, though (for us), is Eddie is Hannah’s father (the kid doesn’t know this) with each parent criticizing the other for failures with their daughter. ⇒Annette also has her troubles as her shifts are being cut in favor of younger women, plus she’s unsuccessfully gambled all her money away so she turns to Shelly for temporary shelter. Back to Shelly, after her miserably-failed audition Mary-Anne happens to be there, tries to comfort her colleague only to be chastised by bitter Shelly. As Le Razzle Dazzle comes to its end Shelly has reconciled with Jodie and Mary-Anne, apologized to Hannah via voicemail, and has a sense (if not an actual image) of Hannah and Eddie in the audience during her final performance.⇐
SO WHAT? As a result of reading what this film’s all about you wouldn’t be unusual if you declined to watch it due to its constantly serious—if not just downright depressing—nature (another loss for Shelly is years ago she used to be married, but her husband had better career options in NYC so they finally broke up, which further burdened Shelly in trying to raise Hannah, who on some nights was left in their car in a parking lot playing video games while Mom was on stage). Yet, despite Shelly’s miserable situations (Annette’s are following close behind; Shelly says she’s considering joining Annette in cocktail waitressing, but it’s certainly not clear if these older women will be assigned enough hours to pay their bills), you can’t help but admire her determination to survive, no matter the difficulties (I could cue Gloria Gaynor's famous song here, but I'll resist). Don’t assume Eddie will be some kind of savior for her, either, as it’s clear from that dinner conversation their affair was convenient and brief with no intention from either to pursue it further. Another unlikely scenario has Shelly moving to Arizona to attend Hannah’s graduation, but (in my opinion) relocation to another state (even one nearby with similar climate and likely similar sociopolitical attitudes) could likely prove to be a drastic mistake for a woman already pushed to the margins of society when she could just rent a motel room near the university for the weekend of Hannah’s big ceremony (I’m not sure what Hannah plans to do after college anyway; if Shelly relocates to Arizona she may find herself with no local connections, which she does have a semblance of in Las Vegas).
Now, let's return to my original question about why you’d want to watch this effectively-brief yet consistently-downbeat story of people struggling to get by. My answer is this is masterful filmmaking and acting from a director who’s the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola (might have picked up something along the way from him and/or his daughter/Gia's aunt, Sofia Coppola) and a main performer who was nominated for Best Female Actor in a Leading Role from the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild (Curtis was also nominated by SAG for Female Actor in a Supporting Role; overall, the film’s won or been nominated for 33 other honors so it’s not just me who’s been impressed by it). Looking back at my choices for 2025 Oscar contenders in the Best Picture, Actress in a Leading Role, and Supporting Actress, however, I think the only substitution I could make would be promoting The Last Showgirl as 1 of the Academy’s 10 Best Picture noms rather than (eventual winner—yuk!) Anora (Sean Baker, 2024), but I’m still supporting Conclave (Edward Berger, 2024) as last year’s best even as I do have great respect for The Last Showgirl, encouraging you to see it.
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: The CCAL’s encouraging your viewership also, but not as enthusiastically as me (if, again, for no other reason than Anderson’s acting, mesmerizing even as it’s heartbreaking). The Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are at 83%, characterized by Jen Yamato of The Washington Post: “Onetime ‘Baywatch’ babe, reality star and ’90s sex symbol Pamela Anderson (also: activist, best-selling author and mother) has spent much of her career shoved into boxes beyond her control. But the Pam-aissance she’s undergone in recent years, and really her entire 35-year career, has led to [this] buoyant, wrenching work. […] In the film’s rawest moments, Coppola captures the horror of realizing the clock is ticking too fast, and the seductive allure of pretending otherwise. Although the slightness of the film’s vignette-heavy narrative is frustrating, its ambiguous ending and lack of easy resolutions, at least, feel honest. And its key takeaway is as necessary as it is clear: Heavy is the head that wears the bedazzled headdress.” Others aren’t that impressed, though, leading to the Metacritic average score much lower at 66%, evidenced by those such as Benjamin Lee of U.K.’s The Guardian: “The film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola’s granddaughter Gia, is wholly unworthy of any hype that might have preceded it, a forgettable, empty trifle at just 85 minutes, failing to give us enough of anything and certainly, sadly, failing to prove Anderson’s mettle as a dramatic actor. It would, inarguably, be a challenge for even the most equipped of performers to make much of TV writer Kate Gersten’s vapid script but it’s truly insurmountable for her. […] The scenes in which Shelley tries to reconnect with her daughter are also flat and overfamiliar, giving us very little reason to emotionally invest in what might happen. The best performance comes from Dave Bautista, as a former lover of Shelley’s who also runs her stage show, the former wrestler graduating into a surprisingly thoughtful character actor.” Well, at least he found something to like, as we move in totally opposite directions of response to what's on screen.
The Last Showgirl is generally referred to as a 2024 film given its appearance at festivals last year and its domestic (U.S.-Canada) debut December 13, 2024, a 1-week run in L.A. for Oscar-qualification, but I rationalize it as a 2025 film (which is all I’m trying to address this late in our current year) because it expanded to 870 theaters on January 10, 2025 (total gross $4.8 million, $6.9 million worldwide), but big-screen presence is long gone so go to streaming where it’s free on Hulu ($9.99 monthly subscription), $4.99 on Amazon Prime Video, $5.99 on Apple TV+, also available otherwise.
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
Some options for your consideration: (1) IMDb's Five Things to Watch on the week of 8/17/2025 (if you must, I guess; none grabbed me much); (2) What's currently trending on Netflix.
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