Showgirls Review
by Gharlane of Eddore (gharlane AT ccshp1 DOT ccs DOT csus DOT edu)September 25th, 1995
SHOWGIRLS
A film review by Gharlane of Eddore
Copyright 1995 Gharlane of Eddore
SHOWGIRLS * * * out of * * * * possible.
SHOWGIRLS is the second major outing for the production team of Pual Verhoeven, director, and Joe Eszterhas, writer. Their last effort, BASIC INSTINCT, played like the most sumptuous of classic Hitchcock, with a dash of raw sex and sensuality that made it come across with a hit like curry-spiced Tabasco sauce; a dish not to everyone's taste, but certainly a well-crafted movie. Possibly that movie's greatest strength was that the most important events happened offstage, prior to the movie, during the movie, and after the movie... and that, after bringing all the plotlines together neatly, it left the viewer with full knowledge of what *would* happen in the characters' future, so there was no need to film it. There was actually about four hours' worth of screen story there, but Eszterhas found ways to get it all on-screen in two, by leading his audience into analyzing what was really going on; and by still holding their interest with clever misdirection and false trails.
The major elements that made BASIC INSTINCT work so well are present in SHOWGIRLS. We have attractive, sympathetic, but still highly repellent characters; we have shows for the eyes and the ears, plotlines that play on several levels, we have beautifully delineated characters who are drawn from life and very believable, and we have a story of an innocent (who may not be so innocent) who's trying to play straight, trying to improve her station in life, who slips into behaving the way those around her do... but recovers with a flourish, and quits a winner.
In this sense, the movie is a bit of a departure for Verhoeven, who's not known for treating his characters well; but Nomi, the part played by Elizabeth Berkley, definitely opts out of the game in a positive way, and we're left feeling good about her future. This is not one of the great movies, but it's far better than we'd been led to expect by all the negative pre-release publicity. Verhoeven got his first Oscar nomination in 1971, and in the last quarter-century has pushed farther and farther, experimenting with the socially-acceptable limits to movie-making. His most recent three movies, ROBOCOP, TOTAL RECALL, and BASIC INSTINCT, have been a progression of back-door access to American culture, moving from the fantastic through the merely psychotic to the underlying basic drives; and now he's exploring the sleeze. This movie may be the first movie ever made for which the director's contract contained a specific provision that he would not have to deliver an R rated movie. (Verhoeven had to cut several parts of BASIC INSTINCT to get an R rating, although his original version is available on video.)
Many reviewers have taken the Politically-Correct stance that any movie which uses naked ladies as scenery is a Bad Thing; but they miss the fact that this movie is not about naked ladies, it's about people in an environment where naked ladies are common, and WHY such an environment should exist. It's about the scum who use other people as power-trip toys, and the need to escape their power. It's about a world where sex is nothing and normal human values don't pertain; and the lack of sexual excitement and passionate heat in even the most blatant scenes is something of an accomplishment. An NC-17 movie which isn't sexually exciting says a great deal about the phoniness and emptiness of a social stratum where sex has been robbed of any kind of beauty, power, or value. The one scene in the movie that *could* have been a good sex scene, Berkley and MacLachlan in a swimming pool, is not exciting, because by then we already know his character is a callous manipulator. If anything, it's a rape scene with a victim who's been duped into cooperation.
You don't make a movie about the history of black people in America without using a few black actors; you don't make a movie about World War II without a few guns going off and a few people getting killed; and you don't make a movie about Las Vegas showgirls without showing a few Las Vegas showgirls ... and in an awful lot of Vegas shows, an awful lot of ladies wear very little clothing. This is a legitimate portrayal of a rather seamy side of the entertainment industry, in a town where sex is simply a negotiable commodity.
SHOWGIRLS de-glamorizes the Las Vegas show and sex industries with great effectiveness.
Nomi is played, in a very good performance, by Elizabeth Berkley, who gives us a solid picture of a woman with limited talents who's at the end of her rope, desperate to live a life better than the one she's known. She has nothing to market except her body and her limited dancing ability, and is trying desperately not to to be a hooker, trying to be something better than she seems destined to be. When Nomi realizes she's gone too far for too little, she catches herself just in time to save the most essential part of who she wants to be.
Gina Rivera plays Molly, a dressmaker and costumer who befriends Nomi, providing her with what may be the one solid, positive relationship in Nomi's entire life. Molly is the one who makes the difference, and provides the role model and framework Nomi needs to verify the value system she'll be using for the REST of her life, and Nomi's feelings for Molly are the spur that forces Nomi's decision. Gina Gershon plays Cristal, an aging, but still very attractive starring dancer, a reflexively competitive manipulator who's become a villainess by internalizing the ethos of the crooks and scum around her. Gershon plays Cristal as a cross between Ava Gardner and Raquel Welch; a fading talent made bitter by self-awareness. Her character is very well drawn and performed; in a major scene in a hospital room, she acknowledges what she is, and, in essence, passes the torch to Nomi. The relationship between the two of them is the most honest one in the movie, and provides part of the impetus Nomi needs to follow a different path.
It is no accident that the three important parts in this movie are women of different stripe; Molly is an honest, hard-working person who means well, and nearly dies because she confuses the glitter and the image with reality. Cristal is a talented dancer who's compromised her ideals and sold herself to be a co-operating part of the system, exchanging self-respect for the species of stardom that can be had in Las Vegas. Nomi believes she can make it without selling herself, succumbs to a degree, and then realizes she CAN make it without selling herself, and doesn't need Las Vegas or its brand of "stardom."
The male parts in this movie are simply props; they exist only to demonstrate and explicate the cultural milieu against which showgirls exist. Kyle MacLachlan, whose single best previous work was as an inhumanly emotionless cop in THE HIDDEN, gives us a nicely reptilian bit of pond scum on two legs, camouflaged as a nice guy. Glenn Plummer plays a dancer who's working as a bellboy, and provides a bit of alternate perspective. Plummer's character is the only one in the movie who's maintaining an interest in dance as a performing art, but even he's succumbed to the cult of manipulation. Plummer's character is the closest thing to a sympathetic male character in the whole movie.
Some of Jost Vacano's cinematography is fantastic, and one particular delineation of Nomi's character alteration, a no-dialog scene using nothing but color changes in the lighting, is utterly terrifying.
This movie is rated NC-17 due to language, sexual situations, full frontal nudity, violence, and probably the costuming as well. I don't see a way this particular story could have been told well without it, and I regard it as a legitimate exercise in movie-making. But don't go see it if you're not in a tough mood; the only person it's possible to like in this movie ends up in an I.C.U. on life support, and there is probably not one character in this movie you'd enjoy meeting in person.
SHOWGIRLS * * * out of * * * * possible.
Starring: Elizabeth Berkley, Gina Gershon, and Gina Ravera,
with Kyle MacLachlan, Glenn Plummer, and Alan Rachins. Producers: Alan Marshall and Charles Evans, with Mario Kassar Director: Paul Verhoeven
Writer: Joe Eszterhas
Cinematographer: Jost Vacano
Music: David A. Stewart
Choreography: Marguerite Pomerhn-Derricks
Production Designer: Allan Cameron
Costumes: Ellen Mirojnick
Edited by: Mark Goldblatt and Mark Helfrich
Rating: NC-17 (i.e. "X")
A "Chargeurs" film from MGM/Carolco, opening date 22 Sep 95.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
