SHOWGIRLS
A film review by Christopher Null
Copyright 1995 Christopher Null
What is Joe Eszterhas going to do *now?* First came FLASHDANCE. Then he shocked us with BASIC INSTINCT. Now he writes SHOWGIRLS, an ultra-explicit NC-17 drama about a Las Vegas showgirl who goes from nobody to "Goddess" by playing the Power Game better than everyone else.
No longer the innocent wallflower from "Saved By the Bell," Elizabeth Berkley has been transformed (by an excellent plastic surgeon) into Nomi Malone, a sexy vamp who is nothing but trouble. This role is going to haunt Berkley for the rest of her life, if not longer, largely due to the fact that she is pretty much naked in every scene. We're talking "Totally Nude," no holds barred. And not just Berkley, there's a whole harem of strippers to support her. They parade around in their scanties so much (and so well) that it's pretty easy to forget about little details like plot, acting, and character development.
But at least these things exist in SHOWGIRLS. The plot is typical Eszterhas: Nomi has a shady past and wants to start over. A whole bunch of slimy guys get in her way. And Eszterhas is never one to forget to throw in a little lesbian subplot (in this case, with Gina Gershon, as Nomi's arch-rival Cristal). The acting is as much as one can expect from essentially two-dimensional characters, most of which are carbon copies of each other. Thankfully, Nomi holds our attention well, and while Berkley hams up the role to an extreme, she's still interesting to watch. For Nomi, *everything* is a show.
The setting really makes this film worthwhile. Director Paul Verhoeven (TOTAL RECALL) slices open the underbelly of Sin City for all to see, getting behind the scenes and facades of the big casinos by taking us directly into the action. We're on the stage when Nomi makes her big entrances; everything is raw and vivid. There's no sense of "seduction across a crowded room." It's laid out in Technicolor through a two word image: pure lust.
The dance numbers are truly incredible--this is *not* FAME. Your $6.50 movie ticket will get you admission to a good half dozen shows during the course of the film. That's a lot cheaper than Vegas.
In closing, I feel compelled to say something meaningful about gratuitous nudity and sex in American cinema, but I won't. Yes, it's extreme, but this story really won't work any other way. (And after 45 minutes, you really don't notice any more.) I'm glad the creators fought to keep it this way, and I applaud the risks they took to get it on the screen. It's a rough world out there, especially in Vegas, and it's a full-sensory experience that simply can't be censored.
RATING: ***1/2
\-------------------------------\ |* Unquestionably awful | |** Sub-par on many levels | |*** Average, hits and misses | |**** Good, memorable film | |***** Perfection | \-------------------------------\
-Christopher Null / null@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu -Screenwriter & Novelist -Contributing Editor, Mike's FEEDBACK / Film Critic, Texas Business Weekly -E-mail request to join the movie review mailing list
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews