The Last Showgirl (Gia Coppola, 2025)

Definitely rooting for an Pamela Anderson comeback, fingers crossed this pays off for her.

 

2025 she has this and Akiva Schaffer's The Naked Gun. She might be back

 

First reviews coming out of TIFF and it looks like Pamela Anderson is gonna be a major Best Actress awards contender by the looks of things plus Dave Bautista and Jamie Lee Curtis stand out in the supporting roles as well.

 

Pamela Anderson Movie 'The Last Showgirl' Sells To Sony Pictures

 

It's been sold to Sony Pictures for the rest of the world

Pamela Anderson Movie 'The Last Showgirl' Sells To Sony Pictures

 

The first teaser trailer for The Last Showgirl is online

 

Didn’t really care for this, but Anderson is great and the supporting cast is solid.

 

I thought about going to see this but I got my popcorn fix from Babygirl.

 

The film is centered around an actor that has been out of the spotlight for a while. The film itself will mirror aspects of the life of the actor and make for a great awards season narrative (Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, Pamela Anderson in The Last Showgirl). The director borrows liberally from arthouse and European cinema (Aronofsky steal the Dardenne over-the-shoulder style, Coppola apes the superficial aesthetics of Malick or recent Korine). The character is aging, hanging on to the remnants of a career where they are increasingly irrelevant (Randy the Ram is appearing at increasingly lowly wrestling gigs, Shelly has been reduced to a background dancer and no one is in the audience). They are seen as surrogate parents for the younger people in their profession, but secretly they envy them because their careers are going in opposite directions. The setting is emblematic of the decays in late capitalism (The Wrestler takes place in the dumpiest parts of New Jersey, The Last Showgirl exists in the run-down suburbs and older casinos of Las Vegas). The protagonist has a partner in crime struggling in a similar industry (Tomei's stripper character in The Wrestler, Jamie Lee Curtis as a cocktail waitress in The Last Showgirl). As their career becomes increasingly mocked in modern society, they dive in to making it a bigger part of their personality. An inciting incident makes the protagonist rethink their place in the world (Randy has a heart attack in The Wrestler, the show is closing in The Last Showgirl). They try to reconnect with their estranged daughter, who stopped talking to them a long time ago because of the destructive behavior they display due to their commitment to their career. The daughter is meaningfully different than their parent (Randy's daughter is a lesbian versus his toxic masculine behavior, Shelly's daughter is a serious photographer versus the smut and sleaze of Shelly's show). They seem to reconnect for a little, only to ruin it with their bad behavior that reminds the daughter why they didn't talk to them to begin with (Randy goes on a bender and forgets his dinner date with his daughter, Shelly refuses to admit that she was a negligent mother). They try to move on from the profession but find it too hard (Randy can't handle the deli, Shelly refuses to follow the cocktail waitress path of her friend). The film stands as a commentary about how people who work with their bodies are thrown away when they are no longer useful to the machine (Randy's heart is failing him in the big fights, Shelly is no longer considered sexy and cannot dance the newer ways). At the end, they get a final moment to recapture their glory during the biggest stage they have had in some time (Randy has a rematch against his classic rival, Shelly does the last ever show). The films ends on an ambiguous note, leaving the character on what might be a false high note (Randy may or may not die doing his signature move, Shelly's daughter might come back and form a nuclear family with the father).

There are many more examples of this type of film, The Whale being a recent one, and it isn't the worst movie you will see but it is one you have already seen.

 

i adored this

 

is this movie supposed to look like this? i’m watching on a FYC app and i can’t tell if it’s intentional or just a streaming issue

 

yeah it's an artistic choice

 

yes parts of it are out of focus

 

Digital on 2/18.