Gia Coppola's The Last Showgirl

For a limited time, our friends at the EarBuds Podcast Collective are pairing a podcast with our headlining film.

This week: Pop Culture Happy Hour. Is a podcast discussing the movie at hand too on the nose? Maybe! But Pop Culture Happy Hour does a superb job discussing shows, movies, podcasts, and more. Find out what the PCHH crew thinks of The Last Showgirl after you watch it for yourself.

— Arielle at EarBuds Podcast Collective

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Last week’s category: music movies. The results are posted to our website and Letterboxd account every week.

This week’s category: Diane Keaton movies. Reply to this email with your submission and why we should watch it. We’ll feature it in next week’s newsletter.¹

¹ If your submission doesn't comply with the category, I’ll find out who your HSA provider is. If you don’t use an HSA, I’ll find a subliminal way to convince you to use one. Then, I’ll become a super duper good hacker and I’ll break into your HSA provider’s system. I’ll bulk delete all of the receipt images you’ve uploaded for the previous 365 days. You’ll spend a slightly annoying amount of time with a subpar AI agent, who fails to redirect you to a customer service representative upon repeated requests. Then, when you finally reach a human being, you’ll explain your predicament. But who’s going to believe you? You joined a movie-themed newsletter and broke an arbitrary rule and the writer got so upset that he broke into your HSA records and mass deleted your receipt uploads? That’s pretty unbelievable. You’ll give up, and be forced to regather every last one of your medical receipts for the past year in order to regain access to your HSA card. It won’t affect you much — but it will be like. Very annoying. So, ya know. Follow the category.

A spoiler-free description of the movie.

A Las Vegas showgirl plans her next act.

If you like these things, then you’ll like the film.

→ Slice of life films. Sean Baker’s Anora probably garnered the most mainstream success for the genre, and this film is in the same league.

→ Man buns.² A man-bunned, somber Dave Bautista answered prayers I didn’t realize I had. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I thought he was just a stout Vin Diesel. I’m happy to share, he is so much more.

→ Orange Jamie Lee Curtis. In what can only be described as Carmy’s mom from The Bear — but orange — Curtis’s performance as a washed up Vegas waitress, Annette, is hypnotic.

² I took some time to reflect on man buns — by Googling “man bun origins.” I came up with this stellar piece of journalism from Vox media in 2015, that details man buns and where they came from. The article begins by defining what a man bun is, which is, per the article, a question that is “harder to answer than you might think.” Not too hard, though, as shortly thereafter the article defines man buns as “hair from the top of the head, tied, and not hanging freely down (as it might in a ponytail)”. The article details some pretty striking research, much of which speculates on the origins of the man bun. Did the hairstyle push into the mainstream in 2012, when Google Trends shows a notable uptick in searches? Did Hollywood stars like Leonardo DiCaprio popularize the look by sporting it on the red carpet? Or, was it inspired by the look of ancient Samurai? The last claim, as it happens, is patently false. Many Samurai actually wore their hair in the classic chonmage style — few had man buns as we know them today. The article goes on to discuss what a man bun says about those who wear it, and, elegantly skirts around my original query for the origins of the man bun. It turns out, only 10 days prior, the New York Times had published a hard-hitting piece analyzing the various man bun variants in the United States. I think I’m done here.

What I liked about it.

You forgot to watch Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl. Perhaps because the film failed to meaningfully break through a crowded 2024 awards season — against the likes of Anora, The Brutalist, The Substance, Wicked, Conclave, Nickel Boys, Emilia Pérez, and a few others.

Though, awards don’t mean much in the way of quality. After all, it was only in 2025 when the Academy mandated voters must watch all of the films in a given category to be able to cast a vote.

The Last Showgirl is a lyrical piece of work from writer Kate Gersten — who also wrote 13 episodes of the 2016 acclaimed network sitcom, The Good Place — that dances to the rhythm of a classic Hollywood film.

The film’s success rests on a disarming performance from Pamela Anderson, who plays the titular showgirl.

It’s hard to imagine anyone outclassing Anderson in this role — herself a victim of the glitter, glamour, and sexploitation of a different era of show business.

She plays Sherri as a nakedly self-centered, borderline delusional performer who’s outlived her apparent shelf life on the stage. The childlike naiveté, often delivered with a misplaced giggle or the impossibly starry look in her eyes, is haunting.

Kate Geller’s casting choices are as spot on as I’ve ever seen. Anderson is paired up with Dave Bautista, Billie Lourd and Jamie Lee Curtis, the latter of whom delivers one of the best Total Eclipse of the Heart scenes I can recall in modern film — perhaps since Old School (very different scenes, I’ll admit).

In the backdrop of Sherri’s story is a crumbling, hazy Las Vegas. Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who also worked on Sinners, matches these performances with some distinctive, hazy camera work.

The lens is frequently close-in to its subjects. The edges of each frame are unfocused and frayed like the edges of a feathered outfit you might see in, well, Vegas.

It’s all appropriately suggestive of the specific way Sherri sees the world: all but stupefied by the warm glow of a backstage vanity mirror and the bright lights of the stage.

I’m not quite sure why The Last Showgirl didn’t get a major moment akin to Anora. Perhaps the two films felt like they were too much in the same lane to exist in the zeitgeist at the same time.

But, much like Anora, the film is a great American tragedy. One that concludes on a note that will stay with me for quite some time.

Enjoy the film.

A fact or two about the production that makes you say “oh, neat.”

→ Pamela Anderson’s (former) agent passed on the script without consulting her. After watching her Netflix documentary — Pamela, A Love Story — Gia Coppola knew Anderson was her leading woman. But the star had moved to British Columbia and nearly given up on acting. Anderson says of her agent, at the time: “He threw it in the trash within the hour and never called me.” Coppola found Anderson’s son through mutual friends, who eventually agreed to pass along the script.

→ The film used real, archival showgirl costumes from an old Vegas show. To ensure the film was true to showgirl culture, Coppola and Anderson consulted former dancers from the now-shuttered Jubilee! show. Taking a step further, the showgirl outfits were archival Bob Mackie costumes — many of which hadn’t left the casino they resided in for 30 years.

One great line of dialogue from the film.

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