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Gia Coppola’sThe Last Showgirlstarted to gain buzz following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024. Hailed as a career-redefining role for starPamela Anderson,The Last Showgirlis getting an awards rollout as it will open in limited release in December 2024 for an Oscar-qualifying run before opening wide in January 2025.The Last Showgirlhas already earned two Golden Globe nominations, one for Pamela Anderson for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama as well as Miley Cyrus' “Beautiful That Way” for Best Original Song.
The Last Showgirlfollows Shelly (Pamela Anderson), a woman who has been performing at the same Las Vegas show for 30 years, and over the years, the once popular show has diminished in popularity among audience members with her and her fellow co-starsMary-Anne (Brenda Song)and Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) to near empty audiences. One day, they get the news from their stage manager, Eddie (Dave Bautista), that the show is going to be closing in one month, forcing Shelly and the rest of the girls to be shocked by the news and face an uncertain future.
Here is what the ending toThe Last Showgirlmeans, including a breakdown of some key lyrics from Miley Cyrus' Golden Globe-nominated song.
What Is ‘The Last Showgirl’ About?
The Last Showgirltakes place over the span of a month, as Shelly contemplates her life choices and must look at what she wants from the future.Shelly decides to try to reconnect with her daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd), and the two have a strained relationship.Hannah loves her motherbut also feels a bit of resentment towards Shelly for her job, as it kept her away at night while Hannah was growing up. She wants to be supportive and appreciates her mom trying to reconnect, but she also has her own struggles.Hannah is also unaware that Eddie is her father, which is information that Shelly wants to be released.
Shelly’s friends are also experiencing personal problems. Her best friend and former co-star Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis) is there for moral support, but following the loss of her job,she moves in with Shellyas the two of them can help pay the rent in their uncertain economic future. Meanwhile, Jodie goes to Shelly in tears, realizing that her family will no longer accept her back in their lives due to her career path.
Shelly pushes her awayas she recently fought with her daughter Hannah and can’t accept anyone needing her. This then forces Jodie to be cold to Shelly at their next performance, refusing to help her get into her elaborate costume before the show starts,causing Shelly to rush and get a wing from her costume caught in a door handle, ripping it. Despite the show closing, the company will still take this out of Shelly’s final check.
The Last Showgirl Review: Pamela Anderson Excels in Lead Performance
Pamela Anderson gives a career-redefining performance in Gia Coppola’s ‘The Last Showgirl.’
The Semi-Ambiguous Ending
As the days of the final show approach, Shelly decides to swallow her pride and go audition for another Vegas show that she earlier criticized Jodie for considering going out for because of how sexualized the performance was. Yet Shelly is barely allowed to audition becausethe show’s director (Jason Schwartzman) rejects her due to her age. He wants somebody younger. After so long of holding her tongue, she finally lets loose on the director, yelling at him and seemingly the world’s unfair standards for women over a certain age who don’t fit the traditional standard of “beauty.“Mary-Ann is at the same audition and gets Shelly out, but Shelly has had it with everyone.
The movie finally ends with the night of the final show. Despite so much ofThe Last Showgirltalking about the show Shelly performs in,it is never shown in the film until the movie’s final scene. It is alluded to with Shelly talking about the show’s history, characters seen exiting or entering the stage, and Hannah telling her mother what she thought of the show she had just watched. The movie builds up the anticipation for the show and closes out the movie with the final performance. Notably, the audience is never shown; the camera is focused on the performance itself, particularly Shelly.With a big spotlight shining upon her andMiley Cyrus' “Beautiful That Way” playing, Shelly is given her big final moment. She is a star.
What It All Means
The Last Showgirlends with the audience not knowing what will happen to Shelly or her coworkers. Will she and her daughter fully reconcile? Will she make amends with Mary-Ann and Jodie, or will they lose contact after the show has closed? None of these questions are answered because, for the final show, none of this matters to Shelly. This is her final moment on this stage, one she has known for three decades. She will enjoy every moment and soak up the spotlight one last time. The world and its problems have slipped away on stage, so the camera focuses on the dancers.This is Shelly’s time in the spotlight, and she has earned it.
The film’s final image is of Shelly smiling. There is a sense of joy as she does something she truly loves and feels comfortable doing. The lyrics to Miley Cyrus' song go “Just like a rose red in its glow/Watch her as she sways/Just like a rose she’ll cut you with thorns/She’s beautiful that way.“Despite all the hardships life has thrown at Shelly, she continues to move forward. The scars and pain life has given her have not diminished who she is but made her stronger, more beautiful, like a rose.
Yet the image of her smiling in the final dance conveys melancholy. The smile is seemingly holding back tears, partially of joy but also of sadness. The song continues through the credits with the lyric,“Spin, baby, spin, the night always falls/At least you had your day/Now the light shines on some other girl/Who’s beautiful that way/She’s beautiful that way.“This might be Shelly’s last moment in the spotlight, her time on the stage is seemingly over. The future waits for nobody, and soon, someone just like her will come along. It is hard to let go of something you love, but eventually, everything does fade away.Shelly did have her time in the spotlight, but the future looks bleak.
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A Meta Reading of the Story Provides Some Answers
Much like how 2008’sThe Wrestlerwas a meta-commentary on the career of Mickey Rourke (earning the actor a Best Actor Oscar nomination),The Last Showgirlis a movie that uses the audience’s knowledge and expectations of star Pamela Anderson to its advantage. Pamela Anderson, like Marilyn Monroe before her, was largely dismissed as nothing more than a sex symbol, and her talent was often overlooked. While Anderson’s popularity might not be what it was at its peak during the 1990s and 2000s,she has shifted her careerinto taking back control of the narrative around her life story. She reinvented herself from a successful performance by Roxie Hart inChicagoon Broadway, but she is also now a Golden Globe-nominated actress for her role inThe Last Showgirl.
The scene with the casting director, who dismisses Shelly because of her age, is a representation of how the media treats women, who, after a certain age, are cast aside in favor of younger stars. Yet Anderson has shown she isn’t done and is just getting started. She won’t let anyone tell her when her career is done.This does imply a hopeful future for Shelly. While the movie might not answer that, just one look athow far Anderson has comein the past few years isa possible indicator of where Shelly will go, and that suggests that Shelly’s best days are far from behind her. Whatever the future does hold, in the present, Shelly and, by extension, star Pamela Anderson are just as excellent as they’ve always been.
The Last Showgirlopens in limited release on July 07, 2025, followed by a wide release on Jun 03, 2025.
