The Last Showgirl follows a veteran dancer on the Vegas strip as she plans a new future when her show closes down. But when you’ve had the same artistic job for 30 years, what prospects are you left with?
The Last Showgirl
Gia Coppola (director), Kate Gersten (writer), Autumn Durald Arkapaw (cinematography), Blair McClendon (editor), Cam McLauchlin (editor)
Pamela Anderson, Dave Bautista, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kiernan Shipka, Brenda Song, Billie Lourd (cast)
September 6, 2024 (TIFF)
Shelley (Pamela Anderson) has been a dancer at the Razzle Dazzle show in Las Vegas for three decades. She loves this job, and she loves being an artist. The Last Showgirl opens with show manager Eddie (Dave Bautista) announcing that the dance show will end in two weeks to make way for a circus. Shelley is left in a conundrum. She has no pension or insurance and no jobs lined up. While her younger colleagues, Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) and Marion (Brenda Song), are lining up auditions, Shelley doesn’t know how she’ll continue being an artist. The prospect of joining her friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis) as a cocktail waitress at the casino doesn’t fill her with hope, but it could be a stable income.
Trying to make sense of the changes in her life, Shelley makes a last ditch attempt to reconnect with her daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd) on the eve of her graduation. But those attempts are futile—Shelley wants more of Hannah’s time and love than she’s willing to give. Nor does Hannah believe her mother deserves her affection. Can mother and daughter see eye-to-eye during a time of tumultuous change for both of them?
I attended the premiere of The Last Showgirl at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). I’d heard a fair amount of buzz about this film, but that wasn’t the only reason why I adjusted my schedule to catch this screening. Look, anybody who grew up in the 80s and 90s would have grown up with Pamela Anderson. Seeing her on the big screen in 2024 is a treat that many have been waiting for for many years.
But despite a stunning performance from Anderson (more on that later), this film is not executed well enough for the story it’s trying to tell. Because it focuses so much on telling instead of showing. The Last Showgirl coasts on its strong dialogue, but so much of it comes out of nowhere. Hannah and Shelley have an intense conversation about Shelley’s abandonment of her daughter, but the scene has little preamble. The previous two scenes of them were just them hanging out in Shelley’s house. Until they argue, the audience doesn’t even know what Hannah’s home situation is.
At one point, Jodie and Shelley have a falling out, but it’s never explained why Shelley decided not to help her young friend. From the start of the film, Jodie makes it clear that she thinks of Shelley as a mother figure. But there aren’t enough scenes between them to justify their actions towards each other or their reconciliations.
Now, had I not remained at the end of the film to listen to director Gia Coppola, writer Kate Gersten, and the cast, I wouldn’t have known that this was an independent film shot in just 18 days. That is impressive and the standing ovation the film received is testament to the power of independent cinema. But when you have a small budget and a short filming schedule, the director needs to make decisions about what stays in the film and what needs to go. Unfortunately, I don’t think Coppola made the best decisions. The Last Showgirl should have been a character-driven story about the difficult circumstances older women are placed in by a society that doesn’t value them beyond their beauty. Instead, it tries to be that story, and a story about a mother prioritising her career over her daughter, and a story about the lack of accountability of men in power, and a diatribe against the inequities between men and women in the workplace, and an ode to the wonders of Las Vegas. That’s too much, and that’s why the film ends up muddled. It might have been wiser if plot threads, such as Shelley’s memory issues or the stylistic scenes of Shelley dancing around Vegas, hadn’t been included at all to make more room for the mother-daughter relationship and Shelley navigating her future.
Having said all that, Pamela Anderson puts in such a stellar performance that I am duty bound to recommend this film. Ignore the plot holes and the sudden changes in character dynamics. Watch this film for Anderson. Appearing in extremely pared-back makeup, unlike the blonde bombshell look people associate her with, Anderson brings a realistic and authentic performance to The Last Showgirl. Speaking to the audience at the end of the film, Anderson said that she knew she was the only one who could play this role, and I believe her. I can’t imagine anyone else bringing the charm, the love for performing, and the optimism in the midst of hopelessness that Anderson brings. She leverages her iconic bombshell image to give her character more depth, despite the tight filming schedule and overstuffed plot. I was mesmerised by her. I only wish the plot had been more cohesive for her character to get a more definitive arc.
The rest of the cast is solid. Curtis plays Annette as loud and brash but also deeply terrified about living in a world that’s shrinking around her. While some of her performance was affecting, I felt her character was all too familiar, having just caught the latest season of The Bear. Billie Lourd does a decent job with her role, but it felt like she was as confused about her character’s motivations as I was, because she looked lost at times. Shipka and Song have more limited roles than I expected they would, but they were both excellent whenever they were on screen. Bautista, who said he got this role during a tumultuous time in his life, brings a measured performance to his role as Eddie, the manager. But despite the large wig, I just couldn’t help but see Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy. His mannerisms and his way of speaking were so similar. Beyond that, it’s a fine performance if not ground-breaking.
The women actors in this film have excellent camaraderie, and the cast chemistry does a lot of the heavy lifting. If only the plot didn’t try to do so much and lose its way, The Last Showgirl would have been a much stronger film overall.
