This was the star of Stacked! Pamela Anderson – yes, the one you’re thinking of – has been hiding a real actress underneath that smokeshow body everyone has been oogling over for years now. It just took Gia Coppola, and Las Vegas, to bring it out of her. The Last Showgirl is a showstopper because of Anderson, and this time, it’s not because of her boobs.
Though those tits are important to the Shelley Gardner’s (Anderson) story. Shelley was the star of Le Razzle Dazzle since its inception in the 1980s, and has been a reliable dancer for the revue since. But time is a cruel mistress, and producer Eddie (Dave Bautista) informs Shelley, Mary-Anne (Brenda Song), Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) and the other girls that the show will be cancelled in 2 weeks. While Mary-Anne and Jodie are young enough to find other jobs, Shelley is hoping against hope that this is all a dream, consoled by her best friend and former Dazzzle showgirl Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis). Shelley absentmindedly phones her daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd) with a rambling message, which shockingly brings the shy girl to Vegas, to see what’s going on with her estranged mom during this chaos.
I don’t know how Pamela Anderson convinced Gia Coppola she could do this role, but I’m forever glad she did. All that Baywatchy distzy talking energy is present inside Shelley, befitting a Vegas showgirl. But Anderson uses that high pitched voice as another show for the audience. Underneath that sweet cute demeanor is a scared woman clinging to the vestiges of her life’s fantasy. The end of Le Razzle Dazzle has put Shelley in crisis mode, focusing on holding onto her delusion/dream and keeping everyone else at arm’s length until she figures it out. Poor Hannah and especially Jodie realize that Shelley’s voice is just another show, and realize it too late. Pamela Anderson makes the audience really believe Shelley has a duality to everything she says, making her endlessly fascinating when her two personalities are forced to confront one another, a rebuke to every producer who said she was just some blonde bimbo all those years.
Perpetual family underdog Gia Coppola surrounds The Last Showgirl with a bunch of people in similar boats to Pamela Anderson. Dave Bautista has for years been trying to get people to realize that he’s a way better actor than Dwayne Johnson, and he proves it again here giving us a quiet hurt wrinkle he doesn’t get to play very often. Kiernan Shipka continues to grow up and prove herself as not just a kid actor anymore; she’s part of the best scene in this movie. Billie Lourd has mega Fisher family shoes to fill like Gia. Brenda Song has been criminally underutilized for years, and gets at least a few chances to use that sniping personality to deliver some great jokes at characters’ expenses. And finally, Jamie Lee Curtis is out here proving that her Oscar Win was no fluke, and she can do a great award worthy performance again if she wants to.
Turns out, a movie of likable underachievers is a great way to generate sympathy from the audience. The Last Showgirl is filled with that energy: eager to please, desperate for attention, appreciative of any they get. This gets the 4th Rushmore spot for Pamela Anderson, beside Baywatch, The Tommy Lee tape, and the Roast of Pamela Anderson, one of the great roasts of all time.