The Last Showgirl (15)

Gia Coppola’s latest film stars Pamela Anderson as an older showgirl reflecting on a thankless career in the entertainment industry.

This beautiful and poignant drama follows Shelley (Anderson), a dancer in the long-running Vegas show, Razzle-Dazzle. The film captures the final two weeks of the show’s run through Shelly’s eyes as she comes to grips with being the oldest showgirl in the outdated show. She has an estranged relationship with her daughter and she may be interested in starting one with a producer of the show she’s on, Eddie (Dave Bautista).

She gets some advice about her life and work from a retired dancer/cocktail waitress and friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis). When bad news comes her way she has to re-evaluate her life and figure out what to do. Anderson, who of course was a massive sex symbol and icon of the nineties, gives the performance of her career. The industry that once celebrated her physical beauty has long since moved on, but that’s the way life goes; we never know what’s going to happen next. We don’t always get a happy ending. We only have right now.