Showgirls

So this is the one that I decided to end this project with.  Why?  Well because…alright I don’t have a reason.  I just thought this would make a nice period at the end of the sentence.  So without further ado: Showgirls.

This is the second offering from writer Joe Eszterhas and director Paul Verhoeven and what they immediately followed up Basic Instinct with.  I think this thing becomes a bunch more interesting if you approach it from the view that this helped to bankrupt Carolco Pictures.  After this Cutthroat Island came out and then it was totally over.  So if you go into this thinking that this picture made a little bit of history and was one half of the straw that broke the camel’s back then it might change your view a little bit.  It’s also interesting to note that Verhoeven never recovered from this one.  He didn’t have huge success with Starship Troopers or Hollow Man and never enjoyed Basic Instinct status in the States again.  He decided to go back to his native Netherlands and make films there.

But anyway this one is a story about a runaway/drifter named Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley (Saved by the Bell, Any Given Sunday)) who hitchhikes her way to Las Vegas.  When she arrives she gets ripped off by her ride and meets Molly (Gina Ravera (Kiss the Girls, TV shit)).  The two hit it off and Molly offers to put Nomi up for a while until she can get a job.  What Nomi wants more than anything is to be a dancer and so she takes a job at The Cheetah strip club but still lives with Molly because they’ve become friends.  Molly works as a dress maker for a major Vegas show at the Stardust called “Goddess”.  She allows Nomi to tag along one day and this is how Nomi and Cristal Conners (Gina Gershon (Out for Justice, Face/Off)) meet.  Cristal is the lead dancer for the show and is a total bitch.  But she likes Nomi’s nails and seeks her out the next night at The Cheetah.  Through various circumstances and events Nomi shoots to stardom.  So it’s a “makin’ it big in showbiz despite the odds” story like That Thing You Do! or Selena.

Sure everyone knows about Showgirls but I don’t know how many have actually seen it or have watched the whole thing.  It has a notoriously bad reputation for being campy, poorly acted, over the top, showing lots of bare boobies and for also being just plain weird.  But I don’t agree with any of that except the over the top part.  Well, and they do show a ton of topless women but the rest of it I don’t quite see.  Now I know I’m in the minority on this but I wouldn’t say that it’s campy because when I think of something being campy I think of The Rocky Horror Picture Show or Gremlins (both 1 and 2).  Camp has a light hearted touch to it that winks at the camera and knows what it is and what it’s doing.  This film is dead serious.  The whole thing is done with a straight face and that’s the best thing that these filmmakers could’ve possibly done.  Not nearly as many people would have paid attention to this thing if it was a dramedy or pulled the audience off to the side every once in a while to say, “now wasn’t that fun?”  I’ll get back to the seriousness of this piece a little later so for now let’s move on to the poorly acted accusation.

Yes, it’s strange and funny that Jessie from Saved by the Bell goes around stripping for two hours.  Let’s get that out of the way right now.  I certainly don’t disagree with that.  But no one (and I do mean no one) gives her credit for doing a good job in this role.  Everything that Nomi does makes sense with who she is and if you don’t like the character then that’s different from thinking Elizabeth Berkley is a bad actress.  Nomi is basically a child.  When things go her way she giggles and bounces around and seems like the happiest person in the world.  But when someone insults her or pisses her off then she goes from 0 to 100 in a split second.  There’s not a whole lot in between.  It’s like when a young teen doesn’t get their way and they throw a tantrum.  Nomi gets angered easily and doesn’t know how to control her emotions so when she’s confronted with a situation where she feels threatened then her instinct is to run away.  She’s not very smart but she’s not totally stupid either.  I mean just because she doesn’t know how to pronounce Versace doesn’t make her the stupidest person on the planet.  Nomi knows how to use her sex appeal to get what she wants and when that doesn’t work then she uses opportunity to advance herself.  We also practically don’t know anything about her past but I still felt like there was a lot of depth to the character.  I feel like I got a good grasp on who this person is and what she wants.  Berkley handles the frequent and extreme emotional swings quite well.  She grabbed me and made Nomi believable as a street tough young broad who’s not gonna take shit from anybody.

Everyone else in the movie gave great performances as well.  The next best part after Nomi is Zack played by Kyle MacLachlan (Blue Velvet, The Trigger Effect).  He’s the entertainment director for the Stardust and if Nomi is the Jessie in this twist on Saved by the Bell then Zack would be well, Zack.  He’s a rich white preppy smooth talker and gets what he wants.  He thinks Nomi’s got “heat” so he wants her in the show.  MacLachlan is one of our most underrated actors of our time and he’s perfect in this role.  He was born to play guys that seem nice on the surface and can charm your pants off but you can totally tell that he’s kinda scummy underneath.  Even though you know he’s gonna be trouble or turn into an asshole at some point you can’t help but get sucked into his gazing eyes or protruding chin. 

Gina Gershon as Cristal is also pretty good.  I love how evil she plays it in this like she’s not even human.  She’s this force to be reckoned with throughout the picture and won’t let people who are gunnin’ for her spot come that close.  Cristal is an older, more journeyed and farther-down-the-path version of Nomi.  It’s not necessarily the personality that Nomi wants but it’s her success, fame, money and power that she craves.  Nomi’s following the same route that Cristal took years ago (at one point Cristal mentions that she hasn’t missed a show in 8 years so she could’ve rolled into Vegas a long time ago).  They both did what they had to do, including working at sleazy strip clubs and sleeping with the entertainment director, to get what they want.  There’s also this gay overtone between Cristal and Nomi that’s pretty interesting.  Cristal finds Nomi sexy but she also knows that she’s a threat to her job so there’s a conflict there.  Zack is keyed into this and decides to cut Cristal off and sleep with Nomi first and brag about it to her.  There’s also the impression that Nomi is sexually attracted to Molly because Molly seems to be the only person that Nomi doesn’t get mad at.  The two support each other and stick out for one another.  In fact the finale has to do with Nomi righting a wrong that was done against Molly.  I can’t see her doing that for anyone else in this movie.  Look if any of this doesn’t sway you into thinking that Nomi and Cristal are the same well they even say it in the movie.  Over lunch Cristal tells Nomi that they’re exactly the same.  Nomi denies it but the audience can already see signs that this is true and also Cristal has been around a while so you want to believe that she knows what she’s talking about and has the wisdom to spot these kinds of things.  I’m sure Nomi isn’t the first person to come along in 8 years that’s similar to Cristal and that’s tried to steal her job.

So let’s get back to the whole seriousness of this thing.  I love the way this movie treats dancing.  All of the characters are blown away by Nomi’s dancing chops and think she’s a natural.  Actually the casting guy thinks that she learned it from somewhere but they “don’t teach it in any class”…whatever that means.  But literally everyone that sees Nomi dance treats it like they witnessed someone who’s never played the piano before hammering out Beethoven.  The dancing that they do for “Goddess” looks pretty difficult and obviously requires lots of practice but because it’s all done topless everyone laughs it off.  Yes, the stripping in The Cheetah and the lap dance that Nomi gives Zack is over the top and spastic but think about how much work went into formulating all of that.

Aside from the dancing, Nomi’s harsh attitude and quick rise to the top are taken just as seriously.   Like how she’s chastised during the “Goddess” audition.  The casting guy insults woman after woman as he checks out the eager turnouts.  Nomi’s insult doesn’t come until the end when the guy demands to see her breasts and then asks why her nipples aren’t hard.  He brings her a handful of ice and suggests using that to help.  Nomi then gets upset and runs away because that’s her trademark.  But all of this stuff is presented to us in a serious manner.  There’s no chuckling when the casting guy does the insults.  This is a cutthroat audition so you better be good and be ready to take some callous criticism.  There’s another instance later in the film where in order to make some extra cash one of the guys from the Stardust asks Nomi to do her dance routine at a convention for some potential clients.  She agrees but when she gets there she realizes that they’re really paying her to be a hooker and have sex with foreign businessmen.  Of course she gets upset, etc.  But this whole renting the showgirls out to clients thing is even more serious than the audition scene.  What really sells it is that there’s another girl that goes with Nomi and she agrees to have sex with the guys.  But she looks like someone just told her she has cancer.  She obviously doesn’t want to do it but can’t turn down the money.  That’s some sad shit man.

Whatever it is that attracted Paul Verhoeven to this movie (Joe Eszterhas, dancing, topless women, other) I’m glad he made it.  He’s just a really good fucking director that really knows how to tell a story.  Showgirls doesn’t offer any mystery or action like Basic Instinct.  It’s a character study and Verhoeven put this one together perfectly.  This is NC-17 and like Cronenberg with Crash (1996) I’m glad that Verhoeven didn’t compromise his vision to get an R rating.  I think the movie would’ve needed to have changed too much in order to make it R.  Good for him for wanting to push the rating boundaries.  I mean look at the great poster they put out and tell me he wasn’t trying to push audiences.  It doesn’t tell you anything about the film other than that there’s going to be at least one naked chick in it.

What may be the most interesting aspect about this movie though is how Verhoeven treats nudity.  Sure there’s a lot of it in here but it’s not all sexy.  In fact I find most of it not to be sexy.  Verhoeven was able to make bare breasts feel like a big deal sometimes and like no big deal at others and I think that’s a testament to how well he directs.  Most of the time it’s tossed off as nothing special and that’s due to all of the dancing being so aggressive.  I always find myself focusing on that rather than the boobies.  Even though there’s stripping and a “high class” topless show in most of this picture it’s more like I can recognize that this is supposed to be sexy instead of me actually accepting that it is.  And that’s what I’m getting at here.  How can a film with this much nudity come off as being not terribly sexy?   

If you couldn’t tell after all of that, I love Showgirls.  It’s an incredibly entertaining movie that never feels like it slows down too much or stagnates.  It’s snappy and sleazy.  And it’s cool that Nomi changes and becomes a little more grown up (not much but a little) and that Cristal ends up making peace with Nomi instead of despising her for the rest of her life.  I like the way it all ends on a happy note.  I really don’t know about the whole it’s-so-bad-it’s-good thing.  I mean for any film.  But I think I’ll save that for another day and just say that Showgirls is good.  It may not be a traditional sexy thriller but it definitely belongs in that category.  No matter how you slice it, it’s a really good time.

Sex Scenes: One and a half.  Showgirls is known for being an incredibly sultry and sexy movie but it’s ironic that it only has one real sex scene.  The half is for that wild lap dance scene where Nomi and Zack are basically having sex but Zack has his clothes on.

After Sex Scenes: One to go with the sex scene.

Strange Cameos: Robert Davi (Die Hard, Predator 2) is one of the all time greatest character actors.  He’s got an unforgettable face and a very New York accent and attitude to match.  He plays the owner of The Cheetah and is arguably the slimiest person in the whole movie.  But I love the contrast between his world of stripping and Kyle MacLachlan’s world of a major Vegas dancing show.  The Cheetah is scummy and seedy but Davi is honest and upfront with what he expects out of his girls.  MacLachlan, his show and his crew are glamorous and respected but at the same time they’re all manipulative and deceptive.  So both worlds are clearly shown to have their benefits and faults.  I also love that they bring Davi back after Nomi leaves The Cheetah as if to say he was such a great boss and a true friend or something.  And by bringing him back briefly Verhoeven is also saying that maybe the big time isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be and that the small time may be unspectacular but at least you don’t have to constantly watch your back and you’re treated with more respect.

Glenn Plummer plays a dancer that befriends Nomi and wants to harness her natural abilities.  This character is completely useless and if he wasn’t in the movie then it wouldn’t have made any difference.  I don’t think he changes Nomi or that we see a side of her that we don’t see with anyone else.  Anyway, I know him as Jaguar Owner from Speed and he was also Jeriko One in Strange Days.

And finally Jack McGee, Mickey Ward’s father from The Fighter, has a small part as a stagehand.