Glitz and Glam

Film: The Last Showgirl
Format: Streaming video from Hulu+ on various players.

Years ago, I worked with a guy who used to joke that he watched Baywatch for the articles. The joke was that back in the day, it’s what a certain type of guy liked to say about Playboy—you got it for the articles, not the nudity. Baywatch, if you’re too young to remember those heady days of 35 or so years ago, was softcore television porn that featured a lot of slow-motion shots of Pamela Anderson running on the beach. It probably wasn’t too fair to her, but the show made her a sort of cultural punchline, someone desperate to be the new Marilyn Monroe. Well, she’s back, and The Last Showgirl is a clear attempt for respectability.

And let me say this so that I don’t come across as crass: Pamela Anderson deserves that respectability. The problem with the fake-breasted, blonde-haired bubblehead stereotype is that it is a stereotype. Like Marilyn before her (and like Judy Holliday as well), Pam Anderson is a hell of a lot smarter than anyone gave her credit for being. The Last Showgirl feels like something incredibly personal to her, and it shows in every frame.

Shelly Gardner (Anderson) is a Las Vegas showgirl in a show called Le Razzle Dazzle, the last of the old-school shows on the Vegas strip. As the film goes on, we learn that Shelly has been in the show for decades, and as she has gotten older, her parts have been pushed further and further back from the front of the stage while the other girls in the show get younger and younger. She is still friends with a former dancer from the show named Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), now too old and too weathered to dance and now serving cocktails, which is considered a step down. Shelly sees herself as a mother figure to Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) and Mary-Anne (Brenda Song), two other girls in the show.

One night, when Shelly is stood up on a date, she makes an impromptu girls’ night offer to the other three, one of whom invites Eddie (Dave Bautista), who produces the revue that Shelly is in. He tells them that the show is going to close after decades due to declining attendance in a world where heavily-sexed shows are becoming the norm. And so, for the first time in decades, Shelly is going to be out of work with no skills beyond being on stage and no longer of an age where she’s wanted on stage.

Into this painful mixture comes Hannah (Billie Lourd), Shelly’s semi-estranged daughter, who is trying to make sense of Shelly’s life. We learn that Shelly’s pursuit of her career in the show meant having Hannah essentially raised by other people, and when Hannah does see the show, she decides she is offended by the fact that what Shelly sees as the connection to a grand tradition is something that Hannah sees as cheap and tawdry. We also discover that Annette has been quickly losing her shirt gambling and is now living in her car and is desperate for Shelly to help her out.

The truth is that The Last Showgirl is a story that you’ve seen a couple of hundred times before. Hell, this story more or less won Best Picture a half-decade ago when Nomadland grabbed the top prize. In truth, there are some similarities to a film like No Country for Old Men. Shelly is trying to remain relevant in a world that she no longer understands and that has moved past her. The spotlight has chewed her up and spat her out. She’s Norma Desmond not realizing that no one wants to see the close-up.

It is an old story, but there is something especially poignant about it when it deals with this kind of physical change in a person. The older athlete, a few games away from retirement, desperate for one final great play is telling this story. Shelly wants nothing more than to stay on stage, to continue to live the showgirl fantasy that she has for more than half of her life, and is not able to comprehend that, close to 60 years old, that she’s the only person who wants to see her there. We can see where she’s going—it’s all there in the life that Annette is now living.

This is a good film that wants to be a great one and isn’t quite, in part because the story is one that we all know and have seen over and over again. It’s a film that is slightly less than the sum of its parts. Anderson is tremendous in this, and I think it’s time that we recognize the fact that Dave Bautista is likely the most talented actor to make the shift from wrestling. Both of them are showcased here and Jamie Lee Curtis is as good as always, but this is Pamela Anderson’s film.

The truth is that if you tell people that you watched the latest Pamela Anderson film, you’re likely to get some snickers and giggles. This is exactly why you should watch The Last Showgirl, because she deserves the chance to have the sort of career that she wants. This is a good indication that she has the talent to do so.

Why to watch The Last Showgirl: Pam Anderson wants respect, and this is a damned good case for why she deserves it.
Why not to watch: It’s really short, and could use more of a resolution.