Pamela Anderson is simply wonderful as a Vegas dancer at the centre of Gia Coppola’s gritty portrait of life on the seedy strip. Anderson’s Shelly has been starring in the Paris-themed revue Le Razzle Dazzle for several decades. But now 57, not only has she been relegated to the back row but the club itself is destined for closure. As she protests the death of this Vegas institution – “it serves audiences breasts, rhinestones and joy!” – Shelly must face the end of her career and, with it, her sense of identity.
First becoming famous via the pages of Playboy and television show Baywatch, Anderson’s career since has been mostly about playing herself in everything from reality shows to the first Borat film. In The Last Showgirl, she is a revelation, playing a character layered with vulnerability, compassion, honesty and self-determination.
Still an undeniable beauty, Shelly has spent so long pushing through the hard knocks to follow her dream that she has ignored the evident affection of club manager Eddie (an extraordinary Dave Bautista) and a relationship with her daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd, a showbiz kid of the late Carrie Fisher).
This is the third feature from Gia Coppola (granddaughter of Francis Ford, niece of Sofia) and she paints a captivating portrait of backstage life behind the smiles and sequins. Jamie Lee Curtis brings punch and pathos as ageing cocktail waitress Annette, while Shelly takes on the mother role to her younger female colleagues. Everyone on screen is fantastic; the action is by turns gut-wrenching and hilarious.
Anderson has in recent years taken to appearing make-up-free on red carpets and talkshows, the sort of feminist protest which shouldn’t garner as many column inches as it does. While Shelly gets to pop the false eyelashes back on, Anderson does admirable work at stripping away the armour that her character wears just to survive life with dignity.
One can’t help but draw parallels with the actor’s own story, as we applaud a middle-aged woman keeping her dream alive in the face of threatened invisibility.
Rating out of five: ★★★★1/2
The Last Showgirl, directed by Gia Coppola, is in cinemas now.
