MOVIES AT LA PLAZA: THE LAST SHOWGIRL—A tribute to a genre long gone

Movie Review by Sergio Martínez

Revue theatre has a long history with dance troupes that have enjoyed notable fame, such as the Folies Bergère in Paris. However, the less famous cabarets that once proliferated in various cities worldwide have disappeared in recent years. With their departure also go the preened dancers in tiny costumes that barely cover their bodies and sport rhinestones and feathers.

Pamela Anderson as Shelly

The Last Showgirl, a film directed by Gia Coppola, is a sort of homage to this genre, in this case, centred in Las Vegas, an entertainment capital in the United States that, in the golden age of cabaret, hosted many of them in the casinos and surrounding areas.  With the arrival of the new century, however, other forms of entertainment displaced the revue theatre: circuses such as Cirque du Soleil or, in a more sordid environment, venues featuring striptease or dancers at the tables relegated the cabaret and with it, those who were its not-always-recognized stars.

Shelly (Pamela Anderson) joined the corps de ballet at Le Razzle Dazzle in the 1980s and, after thirty years on stage, has come to consider her work truly an art form. She really loves what she does. That view is shared by her friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), who is now retired from dancing and working in a casino serving cocktails, albeit with the caveat that age is the enemy of the trade.

Jamie Lee Curtis as Annette,
a former dancer

The relatively predictable life of Shelly and her younger dancer colleagues, Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) and Mary-Anne (Brenda Song), is abruptly interrupted when their friend and stage manager Eddie (Dave Bautista), brings them the bad news: the theatre is closing. When Shelly attends an audition at another venue, she must brutally deal with an insurmountable obstacle in her craft: age. At over 50, Shelly's job prospects are greatly diminished. Amid it all, there is a reunion with her daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd), whom she has not seen for a long time.  Time, however, only hastens the inevitable, and Shelly must deal with it. She does so in the way one might expect from that world of glittering sequins and spectacular stage displays.

Eddie  (Dave Batista), the stage director

This film takes us back to a type of show that has been disappearing without its anonymous protagonists leaving their traces. In this sense of rescuing the memory of those dancers, Pamela Anderson, the Canadian actress who became famous as a sex symbol in the series Baywatch, which aired between 1989 and 2001, delivers a very convincing performance. Both Shelly's more personal moments, sharing with her friend Annette, at the family dinner table with her colleagues and Eddie, or in the attempt to reconnect with her daughter, and on stage, especially her last appearance with the expected smile, leave a strong impression. Certainly, her performance in this film is also a denouncement against ageism.

Pamela Anderson delivers a convincing and powerful performance

We recommend The Last Showgirl for its dramatic quality, very good narrative development, and the themes it alludes to.

Running time: 88 min.