The Last Showgirl

By Joanna Langfield

The surprise poignancy and performance here are what gives this slender sweetie its real pizazz.

Pamela Anderson (yes, Pamela Anderson) stars as a Vegas showgirl, on the verge of losing the show that’s been keeping her afloat for years. Seems people just don’t want the old razzle dazzle and the veteran Shelly, along with what’s left of her company, are hanging in there as their once glamourous dreams sputter to a not so glorious finish.

Kate Gersten’s loving script show real understanding and compassion for the show business people who’re struggling to hold on to the careers they’re sacrificed so much for. These people happen to be on the Vegas strip, in a sadly desperate world adjacent to the more modern strip clubs. Widen the focus and they could be anybody who’s chosen the life of an actor, stage manager or a dancer. If you’re lucky enough to have made it for a while, the clock is always ticking. There’s always a new, younger, more saleable version coming up from behind. Fight gravity and time as you will, you’re only as hirable as some disembodied voice in the darkness says you are.

Anderson gets to shed her former bikini-clad image and do some real, serious work here. And, turns out, she nails it. Her Shelly is a perfect mix of soft and tough, agile and vulnerable. Although she acts shocked when the life she’s loved seems to be betraying her, we kind of know she, along with everyone else, always knew the axe would fall sometime. Director Gia Coppola surrounds her with some wonderful support, too, from a roughly moving Jamie Lee Curtis to a beautifully affecting Dave Bautista.

Although the buzz around this picture has been (and rightly so) for Anderson’s impressive performance, attention and appreciation should be paid to the rest of this stirring look at people too many of us take for granted.