Everything about “The Last Showgirl” is strange.
First of all, it may be the best of the two movies at Toronto made by a member of the Coppola family. “Showgirl” is directed by Francis Ford Coppola’s granddaughter, Gia.
Second, the star is Pamela Anderson of “Baywatch” and Tommy Lee fame. No one ever accused Pam Anderson of being an actress. Her resume is littered with junk. Her films aren’t D rated. Think of “Barb Wire.” Anderson is a supermarket tabloid celebrity. A couple of years ago she married Barbra Streisand’s long ago ex, Jon Peters, for just a few days.
Third, Jamie Lee Curtis is featured in this movie. For most her career, Curtis appeared in “Halloween” movies. She sold probiotic yogurt on TV. Her best movies were “Trading Places” and “True Lies.” Then she actually received an Oscar for a headscratcher of a movie, “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” She followed that with an episode of “The Bear” in which she was so good she will win an Emmy on September 15th.
So throw this all in the Cuisinart and what do you get? A gem of a film that has come to Toronto with no distributor. It boggles the mind but Anderson can not only act, she evinces an intelligence and sensitivity no one could have bet on.
She plays Shelley, a 57 year old Las Vegas showgirl who’s been performing a rundown nudie show at the Razzle Dazzle for decades. Now it’s been closed down. Shelley has no prospects. She has a teenage daughter she didn’t raise, the result of a one time encounter with her boss (a very touching Dave Bautista) who’s never acknowledged the kid. (That’s Billie Lourd, sensational.)
Shelley is not stupid but she is idealistic. She loves old Hollywood and old Vegas, and has kept going on the fumes of that glamour. She’s far more articulate than her friends, family or the audience understands. Shelley is deep, not cheap. She’s also gorgeous, which Coppola plays down as much she can, stripping away the makeup when Shelley’s offstage.
If someone had said last week, Pamela Anderson could get an Oscar nomination, you’d have laughed until you cried. But now we know it’s possible. Even if this is just a once in a lifetime moment, it’s a matter of chemistry or lightning striking at the right time, or a twist in the cosmos. But there you are.
And then there’s Jamie Lee Curtis. She plays an over the hill cocktail waitress at another restaurant. When Curtis appears for the first time, her make up is well conceived you don’t recognize her. Her face is leathered by too much booze, sun and time. Her wig is its own character. As sort of a cousin to her drunk, manic mother on “The Bear,” her Annette pretty much steals the movie. When she performs a solo dance to “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” it’s hard to imagine audiences not cheering.
Well, this is the year for surprise best work from older actresses who never got respect in Hollywood. Jennifer Lopez shocked everyone in “Unstoppable” this week. Demi Moore has been getting raves for her horror film, “The Substance.” And now Anderson and Cooper.
Lesson learned. Never say never.
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