Even now, when people think of Las Vegas, one pictures glamourous showgirls with feathers and sparkling outfits. That imagery is kept alive in Las Vegas tourism advertisements and the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team, which features a group of beautiful women in sequins and elaborate Golden Knights-themed headgear. Despite these women being part of the Las Vegas image, there are remarkably few if any Las Vegas Strip shows that feature these kinds of entertainers. The Last Showgirl chronicles the story of the end of this world through a woman whose life was the facade of these figures of beauty.
Shelly (Pamela Anderson) has been the headliner for decades at Le Razzle Dazzle, an old-school Las Vegas topless revue. She enjoys the glitz and glamour of the show, even if at times she finds it hectic. Shelly has two fellow dancers with whom she has something of a bond with. There's Mary-Anne (Brenda Song), who sees Le Razzle Dazzle as a job and nothing more. The younger and less experienced Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) sees it as her first step in her dancing career. Shelly maintains a cool but affectionate relationship with Mary-Anne and Jodie and is closer to former Le Razzle Dazzle performer Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), who had long left the show and is now a cocktail waitress at the casino Le Razzle Dazzle is featured at.
Things seem to be going well until stage manager Eddie (Dave Bautista) arrives, somewhat invited, to a girl's night dinner. He tells them that owing to declining ticket sales and competition from another show at their casino, Dirty Circus, the casino will close Le Razzle Dazzle in two weeks. Naturally, the performers are devastated, but Shelly takes it especially hard. This is all she has ever done and ever wanted to do. She is disdainful of the new Las Vegas Strip shows such as Dirty Circus and Hedonist Paradise which Jodie auditioned for after the announced closure. Shelly finds them all vulgar and tasteless, offering nothing but sleaze and with none of the elegance of her revue.
Shelly now reevaluates her life, and that includes Hannah (Billie Lourd). Hannah is Shelly's daughter with whom she has a fraught relationship. They do love each other, but they also are so unfamiliar with each other. Shelly, facing the realities of her relationship with everyone she knows, wants to maintain her authentic self while navigating this strange new world. Will she find a place in the new Las Vegas? Will she mend all her relationships and the stage costume wings that she loves?
As I watched The Last Showgirl, I saw it as a paean to a fading if not faded world. Shelly is a relic, a throwback to not just a certain type of show, but a certain worldview. Her audition for a new show that bookends The Last Showgirl reveals a lot about the character: her struggles to adjust, her fears about moving away from the familiar but her determination to maintain those values that she holds dear.
This is a go-for-broke performance from Pamela Anderson. I do not think that anyone considered Anderson a legitimate actress. Like Shelly is coldly told by the director she's auditioning for (Jason Schwartzman in a cameo), I think people hired Anderson during her Baywatch heyday for her physical beauty versus any talent she might have had. Now at 57, both Anderson and Shelly cannot rely on mere looks alone to move forward.
Is it fair to say that Pamela Anderson is playing a version of herself in The Last Showgirl? I would say no. She is playing someone who has similar experiences that the character does, but Shelly is not Anderson. Shelly is someone who has not moved with the times, but not because she cannot. Instead, it is because the world she lives in is one she loves. We learn this throughout the film. She tells Hannah, Mary-Anne & Jodie as well as Eddie variations of how she does not regret giving her life to Le Razzle Dazzle. It might not have brought her fame or fortune, but it has brought her joy.
In Anderson's performance, we see a woman who struggles with her role as mother but who at heart is good. Her efforts to have a closer relationship with Hannah are effective on screen. However, she also shows her fears when she rejects Jodie when she arrives unannounced asking for a shoulder to cry on. At another point, she screams at Mary-Anne that she cannot be a mother figure to them because she already has a daughter. Later on, though, we see in a nonverbal scene Shelly comforting and even laughing with Mary-Anne and Jodie as they get closer to the show's closing.
Anderson has a thin, chirpy voice. However, that and the nervous energy that she shows works for the character. There are wonderful moments of acting from Anderson. One monologue has her expand on why she finds shows like Hedonist Paradise vulgar and tawdry. Another is when she and Eddie have a dinner date. Apart from a surprising secret being revealed, we see that Shelly is someone who will not be judged. As she berates the audition director, we may see both Shelly and Anderson commenting on themselves.
Ultimately, I would say that Pamela Anderson gave a good performance as Shelly in The Last Showgirl. If people want to see it as Pamela Anderson playing a version of herself, I can see that. I also saw someone bringing her own life experiences into Kate Gertsen's screenplay. That, to me, is what actors can do to make their characters come alive.
In terms of directing performances, Gia Coppola did well. Both Song and Shipka were effective as Shelly's fellow dancers Mary-Anne and Jodie, making Mary-Anne's general cynicism and Jodie's more wide-eyed manner work. I think in her smaller role, Jamie Lee Curtis did excellent as Annette, somewhat self-destructive but doing her best to survive. As much as I may not like Dave Bautista overall, he did well as Eddie. He was strong in his overall quiet manner as the stage manager. It was the opposite of Anderson. She played to type as this bombshell who is seeing things end. He is never bombastic or loud. He's actually quite soft, even when Shelly makes a scene at the restaurant.
I thought Lourd could have been stronger as Hannah, the daughter who both loves and resents the woman who left her in the parking lot to do two shows. "It's a nudie show," Hannah tells her mother when she finally goes to see Le Razzle Dazzle. I think the part was a bit cliched, so I cut Lourd some slack.
If there is something that I strongly disliked in The Last Showgirl, it is the camera work. I got that Coppola was going for a more natural, almost documentary-like look in some scenes. I also got slightly dizzy with the moving camera and light flares. However, the closing scene of The Last Showgirl, where we hear Beautiful That Way as we get glimpses of both Le Razzle Dazzle and Shelly's imagined audience of Hannah and Eddie, is quite moving.
As a tribute to a type of spectacle fallen out of favor, with strong performances and an interesting story, The Last Showgirl works quite well. Like the Le Razzle Dazzle dancers, I think audiences will be entertained, and maybe even touched, by The Last Showgirl.
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