Fresh to Las Vegas with no connections, Nomi Malone takes a job as an exotic dancer. Her talents are quickly noticed by Cristal, a headlining dancer who senses an opportunity to bolster her own act. But Nomi won’t play second fiddle and soon begins her venomous path to the top, ruthlessly backstabbing anyone who gets in her way.
Rated 4.5 / 5 from 2 logs on Katalog
When it began I was like "this is kinda 'The Room' camp" but I was wrong, it unfolded energetically into so much more. It's really a believable look at the showgirl industry of the era (although I assume it may not be much better nowadays) with debauchery and monstrous behaviour on all sides - from managers, to stars, to colleagues, the good samaritan driver, to other struggling artists - everyone exploits everyone as much as is possible. It is the darkest side of human nature exposed relentlessly. ||Only a single person seems above it, the protagonist's best friend, who seems too gentle for it all, pays for it brutally.||. Elizabeth Berkley is amazing. Wild ride, definitely worth watching
I’m convinced that this movie was the most realistic depiction of exploitative showbiz ever made, so they had to ridicule it and label it one of the worst movies ever made to discourage people from seeing it. I hereby thank the gays and women for turning it into a cult classic 🙏🏻 It’s energetic, it’s glitter and sweat, it’s wild, it’s disturbing, and it’s very real. It’s so rich and detailed, from stage to backstage. Costumes are fantastic. And Berkley is just DIVINE. I was sad, but not surprised, to find out that she was unable to find work because of this movie. It’s also ridiculous that she was mocked for her acting style while THE SAME YEAR Nicholas Cage (!!!) won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas (there are many parallels between these two). I suppose that Hollywood loves a problematic man in Vegas, but despises a problematic woman in Vegas, that depiction of sex workers is fine as long as it serves the male protagonist, and that graphic violence against women is also fine (check trigger warnings if you’re sensitive!), as long as it doesn’t harm the male protagonist or affect the rest of the movie, all of which Showgirls fiercely defies. A lot of negative response was because of nudity and yes, there’s a lot of nudity, but I will never understand the outrage about nudity in movies about sex workers, strippers, showgirls? What are they supposed to..? I don’t get it. Besides, after a short while, there’s nothing erotic about nudity anymore. At some point I just started wondering how the hell they manage to do such intense shows without any boob support. In comparison, I like Anora, but let’s be real. It got accepted by the mainstream and got overwhelmingly positive reactions because it’s not uncomfortable. It’s pretty, start-to-finish, and the worst thing a man does is being spoiled. I’m not saying every film about sex workers should show all aspects of the work and its exploitative nature, but when it does, it doesn’t get awards. It gets rejected. Ultimately, I believe the biggest sin that Showgirls committed is being too bold and placing in its center a woman with agency that stands up for herself. Because, let’s be fair, boobs bothered no one.
