Repertoire, performance and ritual are the all-out duties and responsibilities which require due diligence and hard work. This is the kind of belief system that Shelley (Pamela Anderson) has fashioned for herself, unwaveringly sticking to it since her incandescent desires of being a great dancer (artist), literally, is one of the characters offhandedly mentions, “Because you were once young and sexy.” Anderson stars in The Last Show Girl(2024), a canvas of a dancer whose hallucination and skill run on the same breath all through the story. That life should have no regrets other than concrete’s always pricked a few holes into her head and so did this lass’s acceptance of her audience (friends and family) into her act (life) as well. She may be a showgirl part of a company but is a self proclaimed stand-alone performer. Self-gratification through self-dedicated creations in which praise created may be of the lost affection.
Shelley has been dancing since 20 and with more than 30 years in the game of dance, she believes that there is one person that is an obstacle to grace herself. Anderson scores as a perpetual optimist never having been given flowers or had a chance to mature as an artist, this resonates with her life. From being a Playboy playmate to being on Baywatch (1992-1997), sex has been the central theme of Anderson’s fame without necessarily showing her true acting talent. The system is being run by the sun, and Shelley is it; the only problem is she hasn’t figured it out, yet.
Cinematic characters like Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950) & William Simon Billy Bright from The Comic (1969) come to mind, tragic artists whose lives spiral out because of their art, like an Atlas in a tragic bind. Being the most senior dancer in showgirl mode, she nostalgically remembers the time when she started doing dances from Moulin’s read eroticized dancing but not overexposed sex. The other troublesome members of the pair here are Jodie (Kiernan Shapka) and Marianne (Brenda Song), where one has to mother Shelley, but the other has simply got to compete with her.
In rotation and in unison with the rest of the troupe is Eddie (Dave Bautista), who leads, directs, and stage manages the entire ensemble and who is as much invested in the dance troop as Shelley these women are dance lifers.
Shelley’s struggles get intertwined with her career as she is informed that the troupe would disband due to dwindling audience numbers. But does this mean that dance will finally be put in the past by Shelley, or is she too overly emotional about her skills? Here is where the film slowly begins to explore the lives of these artists creating a distinction between the values that the audience and the entertainers hold. Shelley has a daughter named Hannah (Billie Loud) whose whereabouts have always been away from her mother, spending her life with family friends instead. Even though Shelley has attempted to reach out for her daughter, she is charged with an unknown yet powerful force that seems to block her from doing so. Her Xanax is dancing and she herself admits that she is powerless without it. One of her best friends is Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis) a cocktail waitress at one of the casinos in the Las Vegas strip and majority of the warmth of the film is torrents in her. As if both promising and scaring Shelley with the dazzling individuality and extremities she hopes to discover in her life. Their relationship was more than just one of friendship. In this relationship, each of them manifests empathy and selflessness which they eventually seek to extend to other relationships in their lives.
The dance as an expression of femininity as a subject stands at odds with Kate Gerstein’s screenplay and the direction by Gia Coppola. When each of these elements work together the pair manage to spin gold, otherwise the film is a series of set pieces. In tracing the same themes of individuality and womanhood, motherhood and self reassurance through one’s own work, as dissects the film The Last Showgirl, Mildred Pierce of 1945 is a better example of such picture. Am I seeing the same film, one that lacks the sharp corners of the secondary characters and more of the milestones regarding Shelley’s peak as a dancer on the stage? As it is understandable, The Last Showgirl is a film which one has to see because it demonstrates what can happen when chance meets with preparation: So as Pamela Anderson stated, during the Q&A after the world premiere, “I’ve been preparing for this role my entire life.” She sparkles, she glitters, and dances away for the love of dreams. Well done Pam, well done.
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