The City of Las Vegas has changed dramatically over the past 40 years. It was a weekend getaway for mobsters and regular folks who wanted to get lucky. They wanted to win big and go to a classy nudey show, while they forgot about reality for a while. Today, it is an epileptic inducing seizure high on a concoction of drugs and alcohol where everyone wants to see strippers and win big bucks. Sadly those who are members of that golden age, are now viewed as dated and are forced to evolve with the times. This theme is at the heart of Gia Coppola’s latest film, The Last Showgirl, where we follow Shelly (Pamela Anderson), a veteran showgirl whose life falls apart as her show, The Razzle Dazzle, comes to an end after 30-years.
On the surface you can see what Coppola was cooking in The Last Showgirl. At its heart it is a tragic story about a dancer forced to confront her life choices of being a dancer on the Vegas Strip for over 30-years. She is not only confronted with her talents as a dancer and her older age, but the consequences of chasing the Vegas dream at the cost of her family and close friends. Coppola was on to something special, but sadly it is woefully undercooked. All of these themes that Coppola introduced are never explored. Shelly’s complicated relationship with her estranged daughter, Hannah (Billie Lourd) or her complicated relationship with her stage manager and former lover, Eddie (Dave Bautista), who might be Hannah’s father. Or Shelly’s relationship with dancing as it is clear she is not a good dancer and is forced to adapt to today’s standards of dancing. These themes and many more are scattered throughout The Last Showgirl, but are not given any depth in exploration. Anytime the film has a chance to explore these themes, it cowards as it cuts to Shelly smoking and dancing in a random parking lot. I swear ten of the eighty-five minutes of this film are dedicated to that. With a film that is as short as this one, every second counts and Coppola wasted it.
As it is known, The Last Showgirl is meant to be a comeback and Oscar role for Pamela Anderson and even with a script that is suited to her talents, I still don’t think she is a good actress. She only has two moments where you can see some talent, but sadly I think the only reason she got this far in the industry is because she is a pretty face. And this lack of talent is incredibly apparent when she is alongside Jamie Lee Curtis who steals every scene she’s in or Dave Bautista who gives an incredibly warm and delicate performance. Then when you throw in Brenda Song, Kieran Shipka, Billie Lourd and Jason Schwartzman into the talent pool, Anderson is sadly out-acted by everyone in the ensemble.
Overall, The Last Showgirl had the potential to be a great film, but it’s undercooked script and a poor performance from Pamela Anderson, leaves much to be desired. I believe we can all come to the conclusion that Gia Coppola is the definition of a talentless nepo baby who only gets these jobs because her grandfather is Francis Ford Coppola. Please Hollywood, stop trying to make her happen.
My Rating: C+
Leave a Reply