Title – The Last Showgirl (2024)

Director – Gia Coppola (Palo Alto)

Cast – Pamela Anderson, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Dave Bautista, Jamie Lee Curtis

Plot – Long-term Las Vegas showgirl Shelley (Anderson) must face the reality of a life away from the stage when her current show announces it is finishing up for good, leaving her without a job and a potentially a whole new way of life.  

“Feeling seen, feeling beautiful, that is powerful. And I can’t imagine my life without it”

Review by Eddie on 10/06/2025

Proving at the age of 57 she is more than the girl from Barb Wire or Baywatch, Pamela Anderson delivers a memorable turn in Gia Coppola’s newest feature film The Last Showgirl, a Las Vegas set drama following Anderson’s long-term showgirl Shelley facing a scary reality of life away from the stage that she has called home for multiple decades.

Very similar in feeling and tone to Coppola’s previous features Mainstream and Palo Alto, Showgirl sees Coppola operating in a familiar landscape that is this time around captured in super 16mm format as she explores the unconventional world of Shelley and her direct friendship circle as they attempt to plan for their new life away from their employment under the watch of Dave Bautista’s Eddie.

Getting stuck straight into things, Coppola isn’t too concerned about laying much foundation as we are thrown into Shelley’s sequined laced world and while this is very much the Anderson show there’s a lot of time for supports such as Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka and a very tanned Jamie Lee Curtis to get their moments in the spotlight in amongst a story that at times stagnates in its relatively brisk sub-90 minute runtime.

Capturing the feel and vibe of Vegas, one of the most unique and well recognisable cities in the world, Showgirl does a great job of bringing its world to life but it does falter in always giving us the type of character growth, development and interaction that we needed to make this intimate humanly focussed feature really thrive outside of Anderson’s surprisingly layered turn.

Nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award and also a Golden Globe award for her performance, you wouldn’t say Showgirl is some grand redemption story for Anderson but it’s certainly very close and you get the sense that there was no one better to bring Shelley to life than the seasoned entertainer and pop-culture icon who one would hope continues to look outside the box in her late career movements.

A performer that genuinely loves her job, the Vegas life and the attention that the stage provides her, Shelley isn’t an entirely likable character but thanks to Coppola and Anderson’s understanding and creative powers she remains someone we can be interested in and while the film around her never reaches any spectacular heights, there’s a quiet power to this low-key experience that continues to show enough for us to think Coppola has a classic in her future repertoire should the stars the align.

Final Say –

A film that remains relatively quiet and unspectacular throughout, The Last Showgirl isn’t a grandiose movie watching experience but it acts as a fine showcase for its often misunderstood leading lady and proof we could expect greatness from the latest directing Coppola at some stage in her career.

3 hair clad Drax’s out of 5