- Pamela Anderson, Dave Bautista, Jamie Lee Curtis, Billie Lourd, Jason Schwartzman, Brenda Song
- February 28th 2025
- 88
- Gia Coppola
Pamela Anderson gives her career best performance as a longtime Las Vegas showgirl named Shelly in Gia Coppola’s drama.
After many years out of the limelight, Pamela Anderson makes her acting comeback with Gia Coppola’s drama The Last Showgirl.
In the film, she plays Shelly, a Las Vegas showgirl who has performed in the revue Le Razzle Dazzle for 30 years.
While it was the star of the Strip in the ’80s and the showgirls were treated like icons, the show is now woefully outdated and fails to draw in the crowds.
Due to declining ticket sales, the producers decide to cancel the show, giving the girls two weeks to find new jobs. But the dance industry has changed in the past 30 years and Shelly can’t compete with the younger dancers with modern techniques.
Over the course of those last two weeks, she has to figure out who she is and what her future looks like and reconcile the personal sacrifices she made to be in the show.
Former Baywatch star Anderson is the perfect choice for Shelly. She has a deep understanding of the character’s relationship with ageing and the entertainment industry.
It’s perhaps not an awards-worthy performance but it is the best Anderson has ever been.
She is surrounded by a terrific supporting cast too, from Brenda Song and Kiernan Shipka as her fellow showgirls to Billie Lourd as Shelly’s estranged daughter Hannah.
Then there is also Jamie Lee Curtis as Annette, an no-nonsense cocktail waitress in a similarly desperate situation, and Dave Bautista, who gets to show off a completely different side of himself as the caring and sensitive show producer Eddie.
The showgirl costumes – archival pieces by Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee – also deserve a special mention as they are stunning rhinestone and feather-covered looks reminiscent of another era.
Coppola juxtaposes these shiny and sparkly outfits with a gritty, non-traditional view of Las Vegas and a grainy film quality. While you can understand the vision, the soft-focus or out-of-focus shots are annoying and there are too many lens flares.
The Last Showgirl is an interesting character study of a complicated and potentially delusional person who made a lot of selfish decisions. However, I would have liked the mother-daughter relationship to be explored a bit more.
The film is an impressive wonderful showcase for Anderson and Bautista but the story isn’t as satisfying as it should be.
In cinemas from Friday 28th February
By Hannah Wales.
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