The Last Showgirl tries maybe a little too hard to be the showcase for Pamela Anderson that it very clearly is. And, to be fair, she’s not the first actor to get a role that speaks to their career and acts as a revival or reintroduction. But it feels kind of ham-fisted and obvious Oscar bait-y. I liked it ok but thought they could have gone with some more subtlety.

The film is about an aging dancer who has been in a Vegas show for decades. The show isn’t exactly a class act but she sure thinks it is. But when it’s announced it’ll be closing, she and some of the other girls have to figure out what to do next.

I honestly wasn’t super enthused about seeing this film. I’m not a Pamela Anderson fan in any way other than that I wish her well as a human being. But the runtime was sub-90 minutes and it was the earliest screening compared to the other new releases, so I gave it a shot. And was immediately impressed by her co-stars so I figured I was in better hands. Jamie Lee Curtis, Kiernan Shipka, Billy Lourde… and Dave Bautista? (in a movie about showgirls? Weird).

And everyone – including Anderson – does a good job and is convincing. Anderson’s acting has improved from the bad old days but she still has a few moments of janky moments. But largely she plays convincing… and this is one of those movies written for her experience in Hollywood (as translocated to the Vegas strip) so she’s expected to do well. And she’s expected to get praise for basically acting out her personal emotional feelings over her actual career.

And that’s the problem… it feels a little too manufactured. A little too carefully crafted with a few too many obvious Oscar Clip scenes. And not just for Anderson… there’s a random scene where Jamie Lee Curtis just da-da-da dances for no particular reason other than “look at Jamie Lee dance!”.

A little more subtly would have helped me with this movie, that’s for sure. But ignoring the manipulations, I was still mostly engaged with the film and give it a solid recommendation.

Score: 81