Film Talk: Pamela Anderson is back as Vegas veteran in The Last Showgirl
There was a time when she was the most famous woman in the world. And even now, there are few who don’t know her name.
A lady whose acting career began with Home Improvement, yet hit the stratosphere with beach-based crime fighting capers while clad in red spandex (‘Robin does Miami Vice’, right?), Pamela Anderson was the household name of the 90s.
The true blonde bombshell of the latter 20th Century, Anderson was the camera’s best friend, and, of course, also enjoyed an incredibly successful modelling career.
Over a 22-year stint with Playboy, she appeared on the cover more times than any other model has in history, and her name remains synonymous with the world famous men’s lifestyle magazine.
Sadly for Anderson, the height of her hard-earned fame was eclipsed when an intimate video of her and then-husband Tommy Lee made its way out into the world, bringing the star couple scandal and humiliation. This sex tape, and the general distraction of her appearance, have always made sure of one thing: nobody remembers that Pamela Anderson can actually act, and act well.
This week, however, she is looking to remind the world of the fact with a starring turn in Gia Coppola’s new drama flick.
Also featuring Jamie Lee Curtis, Billie Lourd and Dave Bautista, The Last Showgirl puts Anderson front-and-centre as a middle-aged Vegas performer looking to hang on to a career-in-jeopardy.
It’s a brave choice of role for Pam – and you have to admire her confidence. But does she bring the magic home, and burn that fabled red swimsuit from our minds for good?
With all eyes on Hollywood this weekend for the Oscars, its great to see another one of the industry’s most famous veteran ladies leading the charge with a film that could mean a career revitalisation. Demi Moore made waves with The Substance – could Pam do the same with The Last Showgirl?
THE LAST SHOWGIRL (UK 15/ROI 15A, 88 mins) ***
Released: February 28 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
On and off screen, two stories of triumph against adversity resonate loudly in Hollywood: the underdog valiantly clawing their way to the top and the long-forgotten veteran staging an improbable comeback against success-hungry ingenues.
The Last Showgirl warmly embraces both narratives in an unabashed love letter to an old-fashioned style of entertainment and the trailblazing women, whose artful on-stage nudity may have been dismissed as mere titillation but paved the way for generations of convention-challenging divas including burlesque performer Dita Von Teese.
Director Gia Coppola shoots handheld on grainy 16mm film to reflect the nearly faded glitz and glamour of her embattled lead character played with career-resuscitating gusto by Pamela Anderson.
Her impassioned embodiment of a stalwart of the Nevada strip, whose identity is superglued to her alluring on-stage alter ego, dovetails neatly with Anderson’s proud personal history as an actress, model and Playboy cover star.
Screenwriter Kate Gersten arms her cast with zinging one-liners such as a backstage spat between Anderson’s mother hen and a younger performer she has taken under her wing: “Just what I need, a lesson in character from a 19-year-old.”
More pithy introspection surfaces when the title character casually dismisses the notion of her being a Rockette in New York: “Nah, I found all that kicking very redundant”.
Jamie Lee Curtis delivers scintillating support as a ballsy confidante, improvising a hypnotic dance solo on a casino table to Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse Of The Heart, but other cast contend with characters that are nearly as threadbare as the stage costumes that fray and tear, unfairly resulting in docked pay.
For decades, 50-something showgirl Shelly Gardner (Anderson) has been the radiant face plastered on advertising for Le Razzle Dazzle, the last remaining French-style revue on the Las Vegas strip.
Out of the blue, stage manager Eddie (Dave Bautista) announces that the show’s producers have taken the decision to close Le Razzle Dazzle because of dwindling audiences. The final performance will be in two weeks.
The jolting reality that the party is almost over for Shelly forces the veteran starlet to contemplate auditioning for the first time in decades against co-stars Mary-Anne (Brenda Song) and teenager Jodie (Kiernan Shipka).
Shelly also feels compelled to bridge an emotional divide to her estranged daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd), who always felt second best to her mother’s stage ambitions.
The Last Showgirl is a dazzling showcase for Anderson and Curtis but they are better than the wistful, meandering film around them.
At a lithe 88 minutes, Coppola’s film still feels slightly bloated and the strained mother-daughter storyline ladles spoonfuls of sugary sweetness to provide at least some dramatic resolution among the frou frou.
SUPERBOYS OF MALEGAON (UK 12A/ROI 12A, 128 mins) ***
Released: February 28 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Reema Kagti directs a life-affirming story of resilience set in the small town of Malegaon in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
Written by Varun Grover and based on true events, Superboys Of Malegaon unfolds through the eyes of amateur filmmaker Nasir Shaikh (Adarsh Gourav), who repeatedly looks to Bollywood for an escape from reality.
Nasir hatches a hare-brained scheme to remake Ramesh Sippy’s 1975 film Sholay using his friends and neighbours as the crew and actors.
With a non-existent budget and bountiful goodwill from collaborators, Nasir embarks on a quest to realise his dreams on the big screen.
THE SUMMER WITH CARMEN (UK 18/ROI 18, 106 mins) ***
Released: February 28 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Creative collaborators plunder real life for their art in a sun-kissed celebration of gay friendships directed by Zacharias Mavroeidis.
Best pals Demosthenes (Yorgos Tsiantoulas) and Nikitas (Andreas Labropoulos) head to the local beach to enjoy the sight of men in swimwear and brainstorm ideas for a screenplay. They are transported back to the fateful summer when Demos broke up with his ex Panos (Nikolaos Mihas) and acquired a lovable pooch named Carmen. Sifting through the wreckage of the past, the friends reshape history to cast Demos as the active hero of his own love story.
THE BIG LEBOWSKI (UK 18/ROI 18 TBC, 117 mins) ***
Released: February 28 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
A welcome re-release of Joel and Ethan Coen’s wild comedy headlining Jeff Bridges as the gregarious title character.
Ten-pin bowling layabout The Dude is mistakenly kidnapped by thugs believing him to be a millionaire philanthropist.
Consequently, the unlikely hero becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue, subterfuge and toe amputation.
A stellar cast ambles through the Coens’ surreal word of avant-garde painters, rubber-clad German nihilists and Busby Berkeley-style musical dream sequences, gladly mining the script’s rich vein of offbeat humour.
