At the world premiere, Pamela Anderson said she had been preparing for The Last Showgirl her entire life. When Kate Gersten’s script found its way to director Gia Coppola, Anderson became the final piece of the puzzle to bring this sanguine story alive. In fact, Anderson also joked that this was the only good script she’s ever been given. In the role of her career, the blonde icon plays Shelley—a seasoned showgirl who’s been strutting across the Sin City stage in feathers and sequins for the last thirty years. The show, La Razzle Dazzle, is one of the last bastions of old-school Vegas spectacle, but its glittering run comes to an abrupt end, forced to close permanently due to dwindling ticket sales.
When we meet Shelley, the warm, maternal bond with the younger showgirls (Kiernan Shipka and Brenda Song) feels instantly real. Eddie, the show’s weary stage manager—portrayed effortlessly and beautifully by Dave Bautista in a hairpiece for the ages—gathers them to break the devastating news. Shelley is obviously and rightfully the most affected. For the others, the show is just a way to pay the bills, but to Shelley, it’s the only life she’s ever known. All she can do is flounder and drift aimlessly as she tries to find a place in the world beyond the lights. The only thing to lift her spirits is her brash and tell-it-like-it-is best friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis) and the prospect of getting back in touch with her estranged daughter (Billie Lourd). Despite the cards she’s been dealt, Shelley’s optimism rarely falters—thanks to the bubbly self-assuredness that Anderson brings to the role.
Shelley’s desperate search for meaning and identity in a fading Vegas mirrors the movie’s own lost sense of direction. Like its protagonist, The Last Showgirl stumbles through a landscape that once glittered, now faded and lacking focus. What begins as a promise of introspection and reinvention quickly dissolves into a meandering journey, never finding stable ground. The shaky narrative struggles to find a clear path forward, leaving us viewers in the same haze that consumes Shelley. Yet, amidst its uncertainty, the film finds its brilliance not in its storytelling but in its performances. At long last, Pamela Anderson was given a vehicle to prove herself as a formidable talent. After decades of being typecast and underestimated, Shelley allows her to break free from her glossy caricature to reveal a depth and vulnerability that has been waiting to surface. Equally impressive is Dave Bautista, who steps out from the shadow of his action-hero roles to embody a character steeped in quiet sadness, a far cry from the muscle-bound roles he’s known for.
Coppola’s first film, Palo Alto, had an immense impact on all tumblr users in the year 2014 (myself included). Rewatching it with a frontal lobe doesn’t exude the same feelings, and it’s hard to ignore the Franco of it all. Her second film, Mainstream, went widely unnoticed in part because of its early-pandemic release, but also because it wasn’t very good. Still, the hope for something great from a Francis Ford spawn was still present. We even included The Last Showgirl in a previous article about our most anticipated movies. Was it a disappointment? Sure. It still undeniably succeeds in allowing its stars to break free from their molds, offering performances far more memorable than the story that frames them. It remains to be seen if Gia Coppola carries the same gusto as her kin, or even her peers, but she will forever be praised for bringing on the Pam-aissance.