Starring Pamela Anderson as a seasoned Las Vegas showgirl must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run.
From the moment the film opens on the frightened face of a desperate dancer in the midst of her first audition in over 30 years, the audience is made to feel deeply invested in this character. The face belongs to Shelly Gardner, the fifty-something-year-old Las Vegas showgirl played by Pamela Anderson. For her performance, Anderson has been deservedly nominated as best female actor for the 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. As Shelly, Anderson brings pathos, vulnerability, and a lion-heartedness to what could have easily been a victimized character. Instead, she is nothing short of perfect as the birdlike, raw-nerve entertainer whose world is shaken after learning that with the death of old Las Vegas, her life-long gig as a showgirl in “Le Razzle Dazzle” revue is about to come to an end. Dancing is not only Shelly’s livelihood; it is her purpose and her passion. It is how she defines herself and how she has justified the major life choices she has made throughout the decades.
Also nominated (as best female actor in a supporting role) is Anderson’s co-star Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis plays Annette, the badly-tanned, brassy-haired, gambling-addicted, showgirl-cum-cocktail waitress and Shelly’s longest friend. Annette works in the same casino as Sandy and with no pension or savings Annette, too, finds herself in crisis. When asked by a 19-year-old co-worker if she’ll retire she matter-of-factly responds, “Retire? Are you crazy? Bankers retire. What do you think, I have a 501K? No, I’m not gonna retire. I’m gonna work and then I’m gonna work some more. And then I’m gonna die. I’ll probably die in my uniform.” Since her tour-de-force performance as Carmy’s manic mom in The Bear, Curtis has been pulling out all the stops and exercising a creative freedom in her roles that most actors don’t have the skill or courage to execute. As Annette, Curtis is fearless in revealing a character stripped of everything– including her physical beauty in a world that is built on glamour.
Another performance worth noting comes from retired champion wrestler, David Bautista. His understated portrayal of Eddie, the lonely, down-to-earth stage manager who has also been with the revue from the start, is textured and honest and beautifully juxtaposes the glitz of Vegas and all it represents.
Director Gia Coppola (granddaughter of Francis Ford) masterfully steers the ship in this, her third feature film. Extracting marvelously nuanced performances from her cast while perfectly capturing the cheap fabric of today’s Vegas, Coppolla reminds us that the glory days of the Las Vegas Strip have long been replaced by franchised restaurants,
franchised real estate, and the franchised entertainment that is soon to put “Le Razzle
Dazzle” Revue and its employees out of business. She crafts touching moments of the onstage and offstage world of the film’s characters, but what ultimately moves us is how she sheds light on the effect the new regime has on those – like Shelly and Annette – who have become invisible in our society.
Screenwriter Kate Gersten (Mozart in the Jungle, The Good Place, Up Here) drew inspiration for The Last Showgirl from Jubilee! – the real-life Las Vegas revue (with costumes designed by Bob Mackie) that premiered at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in 1981 and closed after a 35-year run. An adaptation of her stage play, Body of Work, The Last Showgirl is a perfectly poignant screenplay in which Gersten keenly examines a bygone era and the modern day dilemma of unseen women of a certain age who suddenly find themselves starting over.
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