Showgirls
Sometimes a movie comes along that gets thrashed by the critics like few others can imagine, wins a boatload of the dreaded Razzie Awards and then ultimately results in Hollywood essentially “punishing” those who were involved in making it while others involved make a point of distancing themselves away from it. But in those same cases, maybe there’s a deeper purpose behind the pummeling a particular movie gets, possibly having something to do with cutting a little too close to the bone as far as Hollywood is concerned which results in the idea that “burying” it and having it be declared a “bad movie” will give it the proper odor that sufficiently covers up what it really was that rocked the worlds of certain people in the entertainment industry. This so called “erotic drama” from 1995 is probably the best example of that, released with the dreaded NC-17 rating mainly for throwing all possible puritanical tendencies straight out the window in an industry that has made itself proud for presenting its own content in an acceptable, family friendly way while saving the more deviant behavior for whenever they’re behind closed doors. It’s definitely not a porno though, reuniting the same director / screenwriting team behind Basic Instinct (a film that had its own intensity onscreen when it came to sex) in Paul Verhoeven and Joe Eszterhas with Verhoeven who was the director even stating on the record that while there are a number of things that he would have done differently from a creative standpoint, he still considers this film to be the most realistic thing he’s ever done about the American way of life. And he’s pretty frighteningly on the money about that, using his main location (Las Vegas) as a world where young women looking to climb the ladder of success in the glitzy show business atmosphere there are all expected to make certain “compromises” in order to do so, things that are not even so much expected as it is required of them and that is clearly where the Hollywood establishment jumped off the boat in many ways. An argument can quite successfully be made that the whole thing is indeed an intended satire of the whole, entire sleazy casting couch mentality with its heavy overtones of All About Eve being clearly in play here, but much of the humor is actually derived from the performance of the brave young actress who starred in this film and subsequently found herself on the blunt end of the “punishment” dealt out by Hollywood for being the beautiful star who had helped enable this entire thing to get made: Elizabeth Berkley had previously been known as the goody two shoes character on the rancid teen sitcom Saved By The Bell (as fake and phony a Hollywood creation as anything we’ve ever seen) and thus was looking to do something completely different, agreeing to a meager salary of $100,000 and more importantly, any and all forms of physical nudity that would be asked of her. Berkeley is gorgeous of course and her completely unironic willingness to play her Nomi Malone as a vacuous yet borderline personality bimbo with her own personal code of morality is to be commended for not trying to make the character any more than what she is, a cheerful idiot with a smoldering dark side that she wants to keep concealed from the world if she’s going to make it anywhere. As shown in the opening scene where she hitches a ride to Vegas only to pull a knife on the redneck driver for merely hitting on her, it establishes the motif that the character would display time and time again with her being someone who has little to no reservations about prancing around naked whether it be as a stripper giving lap dances or in hitting the “big time” performing in an erotic revue at a fancy hotel, but try to take advantage of her or act like she’s going to fuck you simply because you say so and she will shut you down cold and hard, even stating at one point that the only one who will ever get to fuck her is the one who loves her. An anti whore so to speak in a world full of them and luckily Berkeley is so strikingly charismatic despite some of her character’s dumber moments that we can understand why the men of power withdraw and yet still allow her to perform in their shows since her beauty and grace cannot be denied. The exception is the showpiece star of the major extravaganza that Berkeley has won the role of being a backup dancer in played by Gina Gershon in a performance that displays obvious lesbian sexual obsession and frustration to its fullest, as she continuously uses her clout to pull strings for Berkeley’s career only for Berkeley to rebuff her and wind up instead in the arms of Gershon’s “entertainment director” boyfriend (Kyle MacLachlan, one of those who happily distanced himself away from all of this when he saw the tidal wave of hatred rolling in). Berkeley also has to contend with a down on his luck black guy (Glenn Plummer) with MASSIVE stalker tendencies who tells her every line he’s got in his book to get with her including trying to sell her on the idea that his broke ass is putting together his own little dance production that he wants her to be a part of, but lucky enough for her she sees him as being the lowly hustler that he is. Meanwhile, Berkeley’s Nomi is rising through the ranks, eventually moving into position to be Gershon’s understudy even as Gershon’s own reptillian seduction tactics fail to make any kind of inroads whatsoever. The appeal here of course lies in the female main character not being afraid to PERFORM ON STAGE naked but otherwise doing everything she can to retain her own dignity and sense of self worth and that combined with Berkeley’s warm and entrancing smile turns out to be quite the fetching combination. A girl who knows the difference between doing nudity in the name of performance art and in just being a whore, something which in the entertainment industry is considered to be a natural part of the territory. No doubt the real entertainment industry was none too pleased by these revelations, but what probably really pissed them off was in how late in the movie we are introduced to a fictional music industry star (and what appears to be a mainstream one at that) and while Berkeley and her friends are all aghast with stricken delight at meeting such a famous and popular person (played by William Shockley, one half of “Pain” from Ford Fairlane), the scumbag wastes little time in taking one of Berkeley’s friends up to his hotel room and (with the help of his bodyguards) grabbing the poor girl and subjecting her to beatings, rape and torture, an outcome for which Berkeley demands something be done about it only to be told that due to the guy’s high stature in the business, the victim will receive a nominal payoff and then this so called “rock star” will presumably move on to his next victim. That, combined with Berkeley moving into the starring position in the Vegas show after Gershon finds herself sidelined compels her to do some serious soul searching about the corruptions she has seen. Again, not enough can be said about Berkeley making a bimbo into so compelling a person, succeeding in getting the viewer to smile during her “stupid” moments, but even more significantly drawing us over to her side every time a chauvinistic male starts thinking that she’s easy prey and treats her in that way (it’s certainly the thing that brings out her borderline personality “dark side”) with Gershon ironically bringing out the most toxic reaction of all, always letting Berkeley know that she’s pulling the strings to keep her around when most of the other males in charge would rather see her fired but also always hinting that the two of them being in an all out lesbian situation is inevitable (in her opinion) whether Berkeley likes it or not. On the other side of things, the film itself is maybe a bit too long and runs out of steam at times and is maybe even a little too lavishly overproduced, but the Nomi Malone character as played by Berkeley was probably a little too good to not get another film (a planned sequel was to be set in Hollywood but obviously was never made) and when it comes to the adorable yet uninhibited lead actress who at least had the temerity to bring her to life, a long successful career was the very least what she could have received instead of almost being shunned by the Hollywood establishment which she most definitely did not deserve…
9/10