I’ve never been to Las Vega. But I have been to Branson, Mo., which people have described Vegas as “Branson on crack.”
Las Vegas, just like Branson, seemed stuck in a state of arrested development. When I was there for the first time over 12 years ago, they were bringing in newer businesses and attractions. Branson Landing had open a few years earlier. It was more like a shopping mall center with more modern music venues and ritzier hotels. There was a Starbucks across the street. And ziplining was heavily advertised. Some of the businesses were closed for the season. Some were just closed.
I noticed on a trip to the Wal-Mart store how bad it looked and for a location like this, it was very bad. It felt more like a thrift store. A lot of the eateries closed at 8 p.m. That was because people could go on to the shows. My ex and I were unfamiliar with that as we chose a restaurant because it had a big huge chicken statue out so it looked like it would have old-fashioned food. We were totally unaware they were closing at 8 p.m. as we realized as we were finishing our meal we were the last patrons as the 8 p.m. hour came around.
But who really wants to see Yakov Smirnoff tell jokes that stopped being funny after his third appearance on Night Court? Even Smirnoff realized that he needed to leave Branson. But still, there are those shows by people who were on American Idol back in the late 2000s or Pierce Arrow.
People go to Las Vegas to gamble. But maybe they just want to take in a show every now and again. But Siefried & Roy have since passed away themselves and even Carrot Top has lost his spark. And Las Vegas doesn’t have the big monopoly on gambling anymore. Indigenous Native Americans have used real estate loopholes to open casinos. There are two big casino hotels in Tulsa. The Hard Rock Casino and Hotel is on the eastern part of Tulsa operated by the Cherokee Nation in their area. And the Muscogee (Creek) Nation operates the River Spirit Casino Hotel on the western part of the city on the Arkansas River. They’re all around here in this part of Oklahoma and even in rural areas all across the state.
And these casinos help attract entertainers. I missed out on seeing Morris Day and The Time at River Spirit. So. Vegas has changed and uses Disney-style attractions and Cirque de Soleil. This means the old days of Vegas style shows are no longer popular especially as parents use Vegas now as a family trip destination. There’s also unlimited amounts of pornography and even nude pics all over the entertainment.
Ergo, paying a lot of money to sit at a cocktail table seeing a dozen topless women doesn’t have the same pull as it did 30-40 years ago. Even Pauly Shore lost his luster after a few years as his audience grew up. And that’s the center of The Last Showgirl set in a city that looks rundown and decrepit. It’s the night-life when Vegas looks great with the bright colors and flashing lights. But during day time, it’s just a desert town. And like most towns, it has its poor rundown side.
In his criminally underrated crime epic Casino, Martin Scorsese showed how Las Vegas was the last frontier for both criminals and old fashioned capitalists. The Midwestern outfits of the Italian Mafia mostly controlled a skim that brought in millions each year. It was all perfectly legal. As it was legal for the casinos to take hard-earned money out of people’s hands. And even if they had won the money fair and square, all a casino pit boss had to do was tell a poor schlep that they accuse him of cheating, take the earnings and boot him out.
What were people going to do? Run to the police? Most of them had friends who were security guards and had nice jobs set up after retiring from the force. The irony is people in Vegas themselves got too greedy and didn’t realize that it put a big bullseye on themselves. So, it’s no surprise the corporations using junk bonds came in, using junk bonds, to take control of the casinos, tear him down and rebuild newer ones more appealing to a different style of family.
Pamela Anderson is the titular character of The Last Showgirl as Shelly Gardner, who just like Anderson is 57 and going through the daily motions of being a showgirl in Le Razzle Dazzle, a French-style revue which she has run for 30 years at an unnamed casino resort. Part of the reason she’s probably lasted so long is her relationship with Eddie (a restrained performance by Dave Bautista), a producer who seems like a Beta-male despite his size.
It’s later revealed that Eddie is the biological father of Hannah (Billie Lourd), Shelly’s estranged daughter. This is not a spoiler because it’s quite obvious from the start there’s a relationship between the two that has existed for decades. Shelly hangs around with Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), a former showgirl now turned cocktail waitress.
The casting of Anderson and Curtis is brilliant because both actresses seemed to be exploited earlier in their careers for their body and looks. And now as they are in their autumn years, people are always commented on “how bad” they look. Curtis is 66 and Annette looks a lot like Magda from There’s Something About Mary with orange-auburn hair and the suntanned face that looks like a leather suitcase that was left out in the rain.
Why didn’t Annette do something else? She’s a gambling addict and there’s some indication that walking around as a cocktail waitress gives her some proximity to the show business world she was once in. It’s like the joke about the man who shovels up the elephant feces after each circus performance. When asked why he doesn’t seek out a better job, his response is “And give up on show business?!”
Shelly has become a den mother to her younger performers, Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) and Mary-Anne (Brenda Strong). But they soon face a dilemma as Eddie informs them the show is ending in two weeks. During an audition for another show, a casting director (Jason Schwartzman) is blunt with Shelly. She doesn’t have what they’re looking for and bluntly tells her she got her previous job because she was young and sexy.
It’s cruel but it’s honest. Anderson, herself, was spotted on a jumbotron at a BC Lions Canadian Football game because she was wearing a Labatt’s beer shirt. And the next thing is she’s a spokesperson for the beer. Hollywood comes calling and she gets a few spots on popular TV shows like Married…with Children and Home Improvement. Then. she’s cast as a regular on Baywatch and became a star. But it’s obvious she was only used for her looks. I mean, I had a poster of her hanging in my room as a young man.
I remember when Barb Wire came out in 1996, the marketing made it look like soft-core porn. But it didn’t have anymore nudity than any other R-rated movies at the time. It was basically a sci-fi dystopia remake of Casablanca. And it was obvious Anderson was only going to get these types of roles.
While Isabella Rossellini and Lauren Hutton got respectable roles, Anderson along with Anna Nicole Smith were just considered eye candy. Even Cindy Crawford’s Fair Game is very bad. So, it’s no surprise that Hollywood wasn’t interested in major dramatic roles for pretty women. Even Julia Roberts herself walked away from the flair and did movies like Mary Reilly and Michael Collins only to have people say she’s come back with My Best Friend’s Wedding.
This isn’t really a comeback for Anderson mainly because she’s never had something like this before. Gia Coppola (granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola) working on a script by Kate Gersten based on her novel Body of Work, manages to use the best out of Anderson’s looks and her voice which has been used as late-night TV jokes.
I’m sure both Anderson and Curtis jumped at the chance to make these roles just to show men and tabloid writers they don’t always have to look like what people want them to. Curtis said she had to get cosmetic surgery after being criticized for having bags under her eyes. Then once she started letting her hair go grey, people began to criticize her. And Anderson is now shunning the make-up to look her age.
Basically, women are still expected just to act like they are objects of affections for men. Once Chappell Roan said that she’s only going to date and be with other women now, a lot of men started criticizing her looks. It’s the same with JoJo Siwa who as a teen performer still had to fit some young-girl fantasy.
Shelly isn’t dumb because she’s a showgirl. But she sees that she’s getting no respect from the outside world. Maybe she stayed on Le Razzle Dazzle because she got to be close to Eddie and try to act like they were a family. But as Hannah points out that she’s been moved to the back of the stage for the performance.
Hopefully, this movie opens some doors for Anderson and she’s taken more seriously as an actress. Why can Adam Driver and Matthew McConaughey make advertisements that show off their “sex appeal” and still be considered serious actors? Yet Mila Kunis and Sofia Vergara does it and people still see them as eye candy in the movies and TV roles they make.
I think there’s also some criticism people associate being a showgirl with being a prostitute. If you appear nude in a Broadway performance of Hair, you’re an actor. If you appear nude in a Vegas show even if it’s one of the biggest casinos, you’re a whore. It’s a foolish mentality. Also the entertainment business is one of the last businesses where discrimination based on looks and age is still perfectly legal.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 