Movie Review: The Last Showgirl

There are times when a part comes along that is so perfect for an individual performer that it feels like it was tailor-made with them in mind. Shelly in director Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl proves to be just that role for underappreciated actress Pamela Anderson. Too often dismissed as just another “blonde bimbo”, largely thanks to her role on the cheesy TV series Baywatch, Anderson here shows that she is more than capable as an actress by playing a character who does her best to radiate joy and hope in a world that seems increasingly determined to bring her down.

Shelly is the longest-running remaining cast member in Le Razzle Dazzle, the only classic Las Vegas revue still in operation on the strip, where younger showgirls Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) and Mary-Anne (Brenda Song) look up to her as a quasi-mother figure. When a date she was looking forward to cancels on her, she invites the girls to her house along with her best friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis) for an impromptu dinner, with Jodie in turn surprising everyone by asking their producer Eddie (Dave Bautista) to join them. The group are having a good enough time when Eddie reveals that word has reached him that the casino’s new owners are planning to cancel the show, devastating the group.

Shelly takes it especially hard, having spent decades enjoying the spotlight but now likely too old to find similar work in the newer, more explicit shows that have permeated the town. Making matters harder is her strained relationship with her college-aged daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd), who feels as though she was pushed aside to allow Shelly to pursue her dream. With the end of something she has long loved looming over her, Shelly is forced to take stock of her life and wonder whether it’s all been worth it in the end.

Coppola and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw shoot everything in a grainy and naturalistic style, recalling classic, small scale indie films. Kate Gersten’s script manages to keep the material fairly buoyant despite the sadness that envelops it. The movie is a little light on character development, but the cast give such strong performances that they mostly make up for it. Bautista especially shows more range than most probably thought he was capable of, and Curtis continues her recent streak of fearlessly messy roles.

But this is Anderson’s movie through and through and she shines throughout. As the reality of her situation sinks in and she begins to worry over her future in a world that can be all too eager to exploit a woman’s beauty in her youth and then cruelly cast her aside when she dares to show signs of aging. These are similar enough themes to the gleefully over-the-top The Substance that the two films would make for an intriguing double-feature, and while that movie is a better film overall and Moore is a bit better in it, I’m still glad that this movie was made if for no other reason than to gift Anderson with the role of a lifetime and at least some of the respect she has clearly earned. ★★★★