Film Reviews: The Last Showgirl | Day of the Fight

In The Last Showgirl, Pamela Anderson brings a dignity to the title role that’s wholly believable, writes Alistair Harkness

The Last Showgirl (15) ★★★☆☆

Day of the Fight (15) ★★★☆☆

Pamela Anderson is ready for her close-up in The Last Showgirl, Gia Coppola’s empathetic portrait of a longtime Las Vegas dancer (Anderson) confronting the prospect of unemployment after learning the old-school nightly revue show she’s been part of since its 1980s heyday will soon close. A dancer in her late 50s, Anderson’s Shelly doesn’t have a lot of options and the show’s diminishing returns mean she’s suddenly torn between maintaining the illusion that the career she’s devoted her life to has been worthwhile and confronting the reality that perhaps she’s sacrificed too much in pursuit of it.

The latter feelings are catalysed by her estranged daughter, Hannah (Billie Lourd), who comes to visit her full of recriminations about the way she was raised. But Shelly has her own support network too, which includes her best friend Annette (played by Jamie Lee Curtis), an ageing cocktail waitress with a perma-tan face and moribund career of her own to contend with.

Though on stage Shelly spends night after night in spangly outfits that leave little to the imagination, the film mostly follows her during her off-hours. Her makeup-free face is the most naked thing Coppola (granddaughter of Francis, niece of Sofia) shows us and Anderson brings a dignity to Shelly that’s wholly believable.

This isn’t a big, showy, dramatic performance. Coppola is smart enough to tailor the film to Anderson’s strengths. She doesn’t try to turn it into a vehicle for a heavy, soul-bearing meta performance, à la Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. Instead, she protects her star with dreamily shot interludes of Anderson drifting around Las Vegas and uses camera lenses that blur the edges of the frame to make whoever’s in the centre of it appear more luminous, teasing out the idea that a little bit of glamour, however tarnished, sustains Shelly just enough to help her get through the day in a city that isn’t kind to women like her.

The Last Showgirl | Contributed

Even so, Coppola’s wispy shooting style together with The Last Showgirl’s slender running time (just 85 minutes) can make the film feel slight. Then again, not every protagonist requires an epic and slight doesn’t mean vapid. Anderson may not have a huge range, but she rewards Coppola with a sweetly melancholic turn that lets us see both Shelly’s vulnerability and her resilience. We know from the opening audition scene that some kind of cruel reality check is going to come and, even though its immediate aftermath involves an undignified (but not unreasonable) tantrum that’s in keeping with the emotionally inarticulate woman-child Shelly sometimes comes off as, we also know she’s made of sterner stuff and has enough pride to protect herself from the slings and arrows that will likely come her way once her current long-running gig comes to an end.

In the film’s best scene we see her on an awkward date with the show’s stage manager Eddie (Dave Bautista), whom Annette has suggested is starting to look more and more like, if not exactly a catch, then at least a safety net. Yet as Shelly arrives for her date looking like a movie star at an awards show, he barely notices and has to be coaxed — by her — into paying her even the most grudging compliment. As this disastrous date proceeds we learn they’ve got a more tangled history than previously thought and, as he blunders ahead, unwittingly casting judgement upon her, she sees him for what he is and refuses to take it anymore. When she storms out, his baffled reaction reinforces her sense of defiance and self-worth. Unlike her and Coppola, he can’t see what’s in front of him. Shelly isn’t a rube, she’s a ruby — a real jewel in a sham-glam headdress.

Michael C Pitt and Ron Perlman in Day of the Fight | Contributed

A more traditional and sentimental story of a washed-up character seeking some form of absolution is to be found in Day of the Fight, a black-and-white boxing movie that’s partly inspired by the early Stanley Kubrick documentary of the same name, but borrows heavily from Rocky, Raging Bull and countless other slugger movies in which a fight becomes a chance for redemption. Written and directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Jack Huston (grandson of John, nephew of Anjelica), it casts Huston’s Boardwalk Empire co-star Michael Pitt as “Irish” Mickey Flannigan, a former middleweight champion of the world on the comeback trail after losing everything in a tragic accident he caused.

The film follows him in the hours before his championship bout as he makes amends with everyone he’s wronged or been wronged by, including his formerly abusive father, who’s now languishing in a care home and is played in a moving, silent cameo by Joe Pesci. It’s really the heavyweight cast (which also includes Steve Buscemi, Ron Perlman and John Magaro) that distinguishes the film and Huston gives them plenty of room to spar. It's no candidate for greatness, but if you’ve got a soft spot for boxing movies it just about goes the distance.

The Last Showgirl is in cinemas from 28 February; Day of the Fight is available to stream on Icon Film Channel now and is in cinemas from 7 March.