Score: 3/5
Gia Coppola’s third film The Last Showgirl is a quiet, intimate portrayal of a woman grappling with her troubled past and uncertain future. It’s a dazzling albeit sobering reflection on social issues around aging.
Written by Kate Gersten and directed by Gia Coppola, The Last Showgirl has a star-studded cast featuring Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista and Kiernan Shipka. While it is one of 2024’s smaller, quieter releases, finding its home at festivals and critics circles, The Last Showgirl’s smaller presence does not detract from its unyielding soulfulness, as the film and its characters are full of life and a sense of realism. There is a grit to the way the film is shot that is delightfully uncompromising to any vision other than its own; it feels like a true passion project. This is admirable in many aspects, but the film also struggles to fully leave a mark and tie itself together.
Shelly (Anderson) has been a Las Vegas showgirl in “Le Razzle Dazzle” for thirty years. While initially beginning as a hustle gig to make ends meet, Shelly developed a love for the tradition and glamour of Las Vegas showgirl entertainment. Her life is flipped over one day when the owners of the casino announce the closure of the show, leaving her to grapple with aging, regrets and her future.
The film’s highlight is undeniably Pamela Anderson’s vulnerable, soulful performance. She gives Shelly complexity, showing various sides of her character from a starry-eyed optimist and romantic to a distraught, broken person gradually picking up the pieces of her life. The Last Showgirl undeniably fits in the canon of “fame comes with a price” cinema, but the manner in which the film goes about it feels less overarching and broad, adopting a focused, personal approach to a working-class story.
During an episode of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series with Mikey Madison (Anora), Anderson said she “was able to bring her whole life into the role” and that “[Coppola] could see the hunger in [her] as a woman who wanted to express herself.”
The ensemble supporting cast deliver solid performances with the frequently limited script they’ve each been given to work with. Jamie Lee Curtis portrays Annete, Shelly’s close friend and a former member of the show. While she isn’t fully explored and is left forgotten towards the end, Curtis’ natural charisma in front of the camera makes this role entertaining and one no one could play but her.
Billie Lourd plays Shelly’s estranged daughter, Hannah. Her performance is solid given the limited scenes written for the role but is a prime example of the film’s underwritten aspects, as she enters the story semi-jarringly. The same can be said of Dave Bautista, who, while delivering a compelling performance as the show’s lighting operator, is given only a small handful of scenes to leave a mark and is left with loose ends to his story.
Coming in at a runtime of 89 minutes, The Last Showgirl’s narrative is airtight, but clumsy at times and leaves a lot to be desired.
The film meanders through its final act, having introduced several plotlines through numerous expository scenes that The Last Showgirl struggles to tie together. Moreover, certain vulnerable and narratively driven scenes are cut short, whereas they could have benefitted from greater lengths to allow audiences to fully soak in the story’s resonance. All these conflicts fall onto Shelly, who’s left with the responsibility of wrapping many loose ends together, a task which she completes rather unsuccessfully.
It’s common for audiences and critics to believe a film should be edited shorter, but The Last Showgirl would benefit from exactly the opposite. An extra 20minutes to tie up loose ends or at least make peace with open endings would strengthen its storytelling.
Still, The Last Showgirl’s main storyteller is Anderson, who treats this film as a victory lap. Her charm bleeds into her co-stars and infects the audience with her vulnerability. She is a star bursting with passion for the craft of cinema, also seen in her visit to the Criterion Closet. Like Shelly, she champions a message of owning mistakes and moving forward through this film.