The Last Showgirl

Las Vegas is usually depicted on screen as the bastion of glamour and fun. A setting for movies about gangsters, stag parties, holidays and romances.

The Last Showgirl depicts a very different kind of Vegas story, one more of faded glamour and the passing of time.

It is also sumptuous, dreamlike, moving and wonderful.

Notably featuring the first performance after a long time out of the movies from Pamela Anderson and directed by Gia Coppola in a style akin to her aunt Sofia, this is a concise tale of a few weeks in the life of Shelly, a dancer in one of the longest running shows on the Strip.

Told that her show is being replaced by a modern circus act, Shelly must process this news, look for other work and also try and reconcile her relationship with her estranged daughter.

It’s a vitally important and moving story of a changing America which nonetheless is still too quick to disregard and not do enough to support those in need.

Told with a hazy, almost out of focus camera which blurs at the edges and crackles the screen, the film has a dreamlike quality which matches its tone.

Scenes are broken up with vivid images of Shelly and other characters with the lights of the Strip as their background and are beautiful and elegant images which augment the story perfectly.

The script is sharp and acted impeccably by a stacked ensemble cast. Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Billie Lourd, Kiernan Shipka and Brenda Song all excel but Anderson will rightly grab the most attention in an awards-worthy performance.

It’s all close to perfect. Perhaps the style and the ‘classic’ feeling camerawork won’t work for all modern audiences and there are occasions where the clarity of the audio is a little off and makes things quite hard to understand.

You could also argue that the ending is drawn out a little bit and there’s one moment before the credits roll which would possibly work as the better time to close but what we have here is a special film indeed with a lot to say and a great way of saying it.

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