When the glittering Las Vegas revue she has headlined for decades announces it will soon close, a glamorous showgirl must reconcile with the decisions she’s made and the community she has built as she plans her next act.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.8/10
IMDb: 6.5/10
Letterboxd: 3.28/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Metacritic: 66
TMDB: 6.4/10
Director
Gia Coppola
Production
Utopia, Pinky Promise, Digital Ignition Entertainment, High Frequency Entertainment
Cast
Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Billie Lourd, John Clofine, Jason Schwartzman, Patrick Hilgart, Jesse Phillips, David Avne, Sean Patrick Bryan
Where to watch
Hulu
Curator Review
Verdict
A wistful, compact character study with a strong central performance and appealing Vegas texture, but it’s held back by thin writing and a tendency to state its themes instead of dramatizing them. Worth it if you’re drawn to melancholy comeback stories and performance-driven dramas; less so if you want a fully developed script or a big emotional payoff.
Best for
fans of intimate character dramas
viewers interested in aging, reinvention, and female performance
people who like glossy but mournful Las Vegas stories
audiences who value a standout lead over plot mechanics
Skip if
you need a tightly written screenplay
you dislike expository dialogue
you want a lot of narrative momentum
you’re looking for a bigger, more cathartic ending
Overview
The Last Showgirl is built around a simple, poignant premise: what happens when a woman whose identity has been fused with a dying spectacle is forced to imagine life after it? Gia Coppola gives the film a soft, nostalgic sheen, and the production design and score do a lot of emotional heavy lifting. The result feels less like a conventional drama than a mood piece about glamour curdling into memory.
Worth noting
Pamela Anderson is the movie’s engine, and the role plays to her strengths in a way that feels both surprising and inevitable. She brings vulnerability, poise, and a lived-in sadness that the script often fails to fully earn. The supporting cast adds texture, especially in the film’s sharper, more comic moments, but the writing frequently explains rather than reveals, which blunts the impact of its best ideas.
Bottom line
If you’re open to a slender, performance-first film about aging, labor, and the emotional cost of being “on” for decades, there’s enough here to admire. If you need a more layered narrative or a stronger final act, this one may feel like it stops just when it should deepen.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Lillian Crawford (4★) · 6469 likes
You know me, give me an 85-minute movie shot on Kodak with a comeback performance about the feminine pain of ageing and we’re in business.
Sydney🚀 (2★) · 4860 likes
The most ‘that’s it?!’ ending ever, after an hour and a half all this really has to show for itself is good ideas and a genuinely magnetic performance from Pamela Anderson. Because of her you are instantly drawn to a character who is underserved by a pretty bad script that can only make its themes stick by explaining them to you in scenes where Billie Lourd is for some reason playing a 22 year old who has the shruggy and… more The most ‘that’s it?!’ ending ever, after an hour and a half all this really has to show for itself is good ideas and a genuinely magnetic performance from Pamela Anderson. Because of her you are instantly drawn to a character who is underserved by a pretty bad script that can only make its themes stick by explaining them to you in scenes where Billie Lourd is for some reason playing a 22 year old who has the shruggy and… more
Harris Mayersohn · 3329 likes
gia coppola tries to make a sean baker movie despite having never met a real person. nevertheless bautista & pam anderson (!!) great. sleazy jason schwartzman cameo also fun.
zoë rose bryant (3.5★) · 3260 likes
imagining jamie lee curtis shooting this in between seasons 2 and 3 of the bear and just staying in character
ethan (3★) · 3227 likes
gia you should’ve given us more story not transition montages