Entertainers—real entertainers, those who command the stage by sheer force of will—are a long-dying breed in Las Vegas. As the city becomes a depraved Disneyland, the focus is less on Showbiz and more on merchandise, celebrity and excess. Pamela Anderson's Shelley faces this slow death The Last Show Girl when his long-running Vegas show Le Razzle Dazzle was about to close and he was headed for an existential crisis.
Le Razzle Dazzle is the last of its kind, a type of show where women dress up in elegant sequined costumes to the skies. Shelley is a mentor of sorts to the younger dancers, including two played by the show's longest-serving member, Kiernan Shipka and Brenda Song. Jamie Lee Curtis also stars as Annette, a former showgirl turned casino cocktail waitress, reminding Shelley of what she's on the verge of when Le Razzle Dazzle closes.
Pamela Anderson Gives Career Performance in Last Showgirl
Le Razzle Dazzle is Shelley's life, so much so that when her estranged daughter Hannah was little, she went to live with a family friend because her mother preferred the show. It slowly becomes clear that Le Razzle Dazzle Shelley believes in something that only exists in her head. Like all his life, this is a past era.
Shelley's wood-paneled house is distinctly eighties, she still uses a portable cassette player, and she dances along to old Vegas showgirls on a projector in her posh living room. Shelley is leaking from Vegas, but she is reluctant to accept it when she is confronted with the current state of Vegas.
When Shipka's character auditions for a new show that bills itself as a hedonist's paradise, he shows Shelly the audition program. Anderson's character is horrified by her overt sexuality and belittles her. But when Hannah sees Le Razzle Dazzle for the first time, she confronts Shelly about the show being all about naked women.
Shelley insists that Le Razzle is Dazzle different. This is classy. Not like the girls who crush chairs and grab things with their vaginas. It's an art that Shelley has perfected over decades. He can't face the fact that not only is Vegas becoming something new, but that he played a role in its evolution, for better or worse.
As this truth dawns on him, it's heartbreaking to watch Anderson's character come to terms with the life he's chosen for himself, despite remaining true to his love of art. As Shelley reevaluates her life, we see her attempt to reconnect with her daughter and figure out what her role in Le Razzle Dazzle is. indeed means for him.
Hannah, gracefully played by Lourd, is in college to become a photographer, and when Shelley tells Shelley that her adoptive mother insists she be a graphic designer, Shelley pushes back. It's easier to follow your dreams than to do something you hate every day, he says. Shelley doesn't want to do something she hates every day – she wants to dance.
throughout The Last Show Girldirector Gia Coppola shows Shelly smoking cigarettes in empty Vegas spaces or gyrating to music we don't hear. Daylight fades, neon loses its glow. When he's not shooting the Vegas skyline in the distance, Coppola watches the world slip through his fingers as he stares into the faces of his actors.
Each actor brings something special to the film. Dave Bautista is melancholy as Shelley's ex and Hannah's father, and Curtis is fearless as Annette. The relationship between Shelley and Shipka and Song's characters is the hardest hit. Although she serves as a mother figure to them, it is a shifting, transitory role between them.
At one point, Shelley is unable to be there for Shipka's character. On the other hand, Song must intervene when Shelly is at her lowest. Unlike her relationship with Hannah, whom she desperately wants to work with, Shelley is more of a mother to herself than anyone else, her baby being the show itself.
The Last Show Girl it's not perfect – it's melodramatic by design and wears its heart on its sleeve. But Anderson's raw and unfiltered performance, one clearly made for him, makes up for the film's weak elements, as does the chemistry between the cast. It's a landmark moment for Anderson and an ode to the often-overlooked showbiz workers who keep Sin City going.
The Last Show Girl It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024. The film is 85 minutes long and has not yet been rated.
