The Last Showgirl (2024)

For over three decades, Shelly Gardner (portrayed by Pamela Anderson) has been the glittering centrepiece of Le Razzle Dazzle, a long-running French-style revue on the Las Vegas Strip where rhinestones, ostrich feathers and floor-length kicks are part of everyday life.  The show has given her identity, community and meaning—but when the world outside changes, everything she built suddenly teeters on the edge.

When the stage manager, Eddie (played by Dave Bautista), confirms what everyone feared—that the adored revue will close in just two weeks—Shelly faces an existential crisis. The very thing she imagined would stay constant—her place under the lights—is gone.  As Shelly grapples with the end of an era, the film invites us into both the flamboyant backstage world of the showgirls and the quieter, more vulnerable space of life after the spotlight.

What resonates with audiences:

• A shimmering backdrop of entertainment history: The film evokes the high-glamour world of Las Vegas showgirls—an often-mythologised realm of sequins and spectacle—but it doesn’t shy away from its cost. Shelly’s identity is tied up in the performance, and when that performance ends, so much is left uncertain. 

• An emotionally charged lead performance: Pamela Anderson steps into dramatic territory with a role that critics are calling a career high point. Her Shelly is patently strong, charming and relentless in the spotlight—but cracks begin to show, and the film allows her to confront ageing, regret and reinvention in a way that’s rare for such an archetype. 

• Rich supporting characters and a lived-in community: The ensemble includes the former showgirl turned cocktail waitress Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), younger dancers who see Shelly as a maternal figure, and the stage manager who holds the backstage world together. They form a brittle but bonded family that must now face the crumbling of their shared home. 

• Themes of change, identity and legacy: What happens when the thing you did for decades ends? When the stage vanishes and so does the defined role you knew yourself by? The Last Showgirl explores how one woman copes as her world—and the industry she believed in—slips away.

• Stylish, nostalgic cinematography with a bittersweet edge: Director Gia Coppola filters Las Vegas through a melancholic lens, balancing glitter with grit and nostalgia with reality. Reviewers highlight how the film merges glamour and vulnerability in equal measure.

In essence, The Last Showgirl isn’t just about the end of a show—it’s about the end of a chapter, the search for meaning beyond the spotlight, and the question of what remains when the applause fades. If you’re drawn to character-driven dramas, glittery worlds with a human core, and performances that surprise and move you, this is a film that offers both surface sparkle and emotional weight.