The Last Showgirl

Pamela Anderson stars as a middle-aged dancer, and member of a Moulin Rouge-style show in Las Vegas. It’s been around for years and is a little long in the tooth so the owners axe the show, leaving the dancers looking for new work.

It’s a little reductive to call this a vehicle for Pamela Anderson to show off her acting chops, but that’s kind of what it is and she really does give a great performance here - what a great role to pick for someone who has traded off their looks for so long. OK the real Pamela Anderson is probably not threatened with poverty in the face of old-age, but it’s clear that there’s a lot she can draw on here.

The script lets it down though, with some characters being quite poorly realised and some of the story not entirely ringing true. It’s a collection of great seedlings of ideas, some of which never quite come to bloom.

That sounds like a major problem but it isn’t. The film is short, stylish (seemingly shot on handheld film cameras) and emotionally impactful. It’s also fun to see Jamie Lee Curtis in full don’t-give-a-fuck mode.