Pamela Anderson Delivers a Career-Best Performance in Gia Coppola’s ‘The Last Showgirl’

Alci Rengifo

Stars who once symbolized raw sexuality are finding impressive comebacks through stark, honest portraits of time’s merciless wheel. “The Last Showgirl” presents a Pamela Anderson who truly gets to show off her acting chops, while taking a sober look in the mirror. She may not have much in common with the lead character, on most levels anyway, but there is a stinging truth to the way she portrays a life looking back. The title of this film is itself a sharp, sly bit of commentary. Director Gia Coppola is telling the story of a woman clinging to a dying show in Las Vegas, while Anderson is herself the embodiment of a particular, bygone form of sex symbol.

Anderson’s Shelly lives in Vegas and has been a member of the “Razzle Dazzle” revue since 1987. Over the decades she has seen other dancers come and go, such as best friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), who now serves drinks at a local casino. Eddie (Dave Bautista) is the old stage manager (and Shelly’s former boyfriend). Younger dancers Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) and Marianne (Brenda Song) look up to Shelly as a sort of mentor figure, even if they don’t mind trying out for shows with more modern, exotic dance styles. For Shelly, the “Razzle Dazzle” is everything that has defined her life. When she was younger, she even ignored motherly duties to daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd). Yet, all things must come to an end. When Eddie announces that the show is closing forever, Shelly is thrown into a personal limbo of life reassessments. 

Working from a screenplay by Kate Gersten, Coppola directs with some of the same fluid patience of her aunt, Sofia Coppola. With cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw she also strips Las Vegas of its cliché movie glitz. Here it feels more like a desert town where people live in plain neighborhoods away from the Strip’s ecstatic lights. This approach is essential to convey Shelly’s bubbled existence. She is both admirable and tragic, clearly loving her job but sacrificing even practical thinking for it. Shelly scoffs at the younger dancers for getting into modern, “vulgar” dancing. She reminds them what they do has its roots in Paris’ Moulin Rouge culture. We learn she once had the chance to be a Rockette, yet decided Vegas offered the classier choice. Despite this, it’s hard to not admire Shelly when Hannah mentions that her current family thinks her passion for photography is misguided, and Shelly encourages her to follow it. If Shelly is feeling the years catching up now, she would still have been miserable had she not followed her love for the revue.

It is a rather simple script in structure that finds its stride through Pamela Anderson. Like Demi Moore in “The Substance,” this is a role that is really about its star. Anderson once defined sex appeal in pop culture, and like a showgirl tended to be dismissed as nothing more than pure looks. She rose to prominence through Playboy. Her augmented breasts became more famous than her acting in the hit show “Baywatch,” while her film career was marked by cult duds like “Barb Wire.” There was also the infamous sex tape scandal with rock star husband Tommy Lee. Yet, as seen in the recent Netflix documentary “Pamela, A Love Story,” there always was a genuine charm in this hard working woman. A particular charisma needs to be found in a real star. “The Last Showgirl” celebrates Anderson’s feisty attitude while reflecting on how long it can possibly last. Jamie Lee Curtis comes in as the film’s second impressive transformation, becoming nearly unrecognizable as a former dancer now living in what are essentially the debris of her life. Age also plays its cruel trick on her when she starts getting passed over for the younger waitresses at work.

“The Last Showgirl” is a good film about someone trapped at their peak. A character like Shelly is hard to write and even more to perform because she generates empathy while being fatally flawed. She may give the right encouragement to her daughter then auditions for a new Vegas show confident her resume will get her the job. In one of this film’s best cringe moments, she flops the audition and lies about her age before snapping at the moderator. A dinner with Eddie also has its own pain when their past bubbles up. Maybe there is still a spark there, but too much history between these two derails everything. Shelly is almost afraid to admit her own loneliness, because the show has meant everything in her life and, in a sense, gave her real independence. Alas, none of us can stop the clock from ticking. Growth can also mean accepting that things change. 

“The Last Showgirl” releases Dec. 13 for a limited run in Los Angeles and expands Jan. 10 in theaters nationwide.