Pamela Anderson stars as an aging Las Vegas showgirl at a crossroads, after her acclaimed 30-year-show finally completes its run. This is the 1st trailer for The Last Showgirl.
Shelly is a glamourous Las Vegas showgirl, whose one-woman show “Razzle Dazzle” has wowed audiences for 30 years. On the eve of her final show, a now-elderly Shelly finds herself the last vestige of a bygone era of entertainment icons. With curtains drawn on the spotlight she’s held for three decades, this icon finds herself caught at a crossroads, losing her inner sparkle after finding joy in performance for so long.
Alongside her best friend (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her longtime sound engineer (Dave Bautista), it’s finally time for Shelly to face the music and re-discover who she is when the bright lights of Las Vegas no longer shine down upon her in this poignant drama about resilience, grace, and twilight years.
The Last Showgirl tackles an underrepresented stage of life in cinema – the twilight years. It’s not quite retirement age, but there’s a weary acknowledgement that one’s best years are behind them. Normally, these issues are played up for comedy, but The Last Showgirl casts a quieter and more empathetic lens on a wayward figure left in the dust.
The brief teaser nails the underlying sadness of performing in a bubble for most of your life, and the paralysis that happens when that bubble bursts. The cinematography is top-notch casting Las Vegas as half-empty, dusty and even decrepit below all the glitz. Each character feels like a tumbleweed, trying to get by in a world where they’ve outlived their usefulness. It’s crushingly sad yet warm and sweet.
Pamela Anderson, herself a star from yesteryear, does a phenomenal job casting a heart-rending figure without ever feeling pathetic or helpless. The supporting cast feels lived-in and nuanced (specifically Dave Bautista, who plays a wizened sound engineer with the specific quiet of a man used to his routine in his corner of nowhere). The Last Showgirl has proved adept in creating a fully realized world in its brief trailer. If they can follow through with telling a story in said world, the film may be an underdog contender for Oscar nods come next year.
Directed by Gia Coppola, The Last Showgirl will release theatrically in the US on December 13, 2024.
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