In February 1990, Pamela Anderson was Playboy magazine’s Playmate of the Month, and from that moment on, her world changed. Anderson became a sex symbol, and her image completely dominated the 1990s and the early 2000s. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the model lived rent-free in the minds of much of the male population. In The Last Showgirl (2024), she plays a Las Vegas dancer at the twilight of her career. In many ways, this role serves as an analogy for Anderson’s own career.

Director Gia Coppola (Palo Alto, Mainstream) brings Kate Gersten’s screenplay to life. The original material is a play written by Gersten herself that was never produced. At the center of the story is Shelly (played by Pamela Anderson), a dancer who has spent decades as part of the “Le Razzle Dazzle” show in a casino located on the famous Las Vegas Strip. Shelly knows no life outside the majestic costumes, the makeup, the spotlight, and the applause of the audience. Her world falls apart when management decides to permanently cancel the show.

The Last Showgirl beats to the rhythm of Pamela Anderson’s Shelly. The story is almost egocentric—Shelly is its gravitational center. Her off-camera time is minimal, and even when she’s not on screen, her presence looms over the other characters. As Shelly faces her inevitable twilight, Anderson finds fertile ground. She reveals the talent that magazine covers and roles that merely exploited her looks—roles that made her a sex icon—had long denied her. Her portrayal of this fragile woman confronting an existential dilemma is powerful and authentic.

A near-documentary tone dominates Gia Coppola’s direction. Using 16mm film, cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Sinners) brings a cinéma vérité aesthetic that Coppola aimed for in telling this story. Most of the sequences are shot with a handheld camera and many close-up shots. Durald Arkapaw’s cinematography lets us feel Shelly’s grandeur as she takes the stage, but also her vulnerability as she strips away her persona.

The Last Showgirl is a drama that works, though at times it slips into shallow melodrama. Shelly’s story was much more powerful without the subplots added to embellish her life. Still, Anderson delivers a strong performance, and the film is technically very well executed.