Showgirls transcript
Season 1 · Episode 11. Generated automatically, so expect the odd misheard word.
Hello and welcome to the Worst Movie Podcast. I'm Ade.
And I'm Aaron, and this is a podcast where we watch the worst movies ever made in the hopes of maybe finding a hidden gem.
Hope you enjoy.
So today we're going to talk about Showgirls, the 1995 movie starring Elizabeth Berkeley. It's part of our November theme of Naughty November. Quick reminder, mom, do not listen this month. I don't want to talk to you about these movies or these podcast episodes. You're not going to want to watch this movie. Trust me for sure. Yes.
Stay away.
I just want to talk to strangers about it.
We'll have a more wholesome theme in December. we haven't, taken this podcast at a permanent direction. This is just for November. So show girls, directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Elizabeth Berkeley, Kyle McLaughlin, Gina Gershon. I'll drop a,
trailer and the show notes so you can get an overview in case you don't want to spend the two hours and change watching this movie. It was a long movie. I can't remember the exact runtime.
Yeah,
two hours 11 minutes I think I saw.
this received a 25 % on Rotten Tomatoes and a 3.4 on Letterboxd. this movie in popularity in the 30 years since it's been out. It was really just pummeled by critics at the time it came out, bombed at the box office, had a
budget of $45 million made $38 million in the box office, but on to make a hundred million on VHS and video. it's the first and only NC 17 film to be given a wide in mainstream theaters. So
Definitely not taking your mom to see this seems like the sort of thing that audiences didn't want to go see in theaters, but we're more than happy to buy a VHS and, it on loop for reasons we'll get into. I guess before we dive in, what did you know about this movie? You're, you're probably a little too young to remember this coming into theaters,
Yeah.
yeah, I think I was eight when this movie came out. So was definitely in the off-limits section at the video store for me. Like I'd seen cover art on the box and stuff, but I knew it was raunchy and that I wasn't allowed to watch it. So, I hadn't seen it in the whatever 30 years since that it's been out. Yeah, definitely.
Ha
Yeah.
So first time watch.
I remember it vividly. was a senior in high school when this came out. I guess that, you know, dates me,
I remember a couple of friends talking about going to see this in theaters the weekend it came out and I did not join them, suffice to say, but I did watch this movie at some point in the past 30 years. I had a hard time remembering when I did or why I would have. It felt like
It was probably well after 1995. If I had to guess, I would say I watched this some 15 years ago. I don't remember a lot of the movie and especially some of the more explicit scenes. I don't really remember them going down that way. So I may have watched a edited version. I don't know if it was on TV and there's a there's an R rated cut. I think it's also called the director's cut.
So did you read much about the background of this movie?
Not really. read about the NC-17 rating and how badly it did. surprised me because I think that this is kind of a famous movie.
yeah, I can't
speak to all the criticism and discussion that happened when it came out, but I know at least at least three things made it really One was NC 17 status. And again, no other movie since then has been really swiped with that rating.
the second is, the director, Paul Verhoeven was coming off of basic instinct and that was a tremendous success. He also directed total recall Robocop So he had a lot of critical acclaim and box office success. Berkeley was notable because she was coming off of.
her Saved by the Bell run. Did you ever watch Saved by the Bell?
little. I was probably again too young to really be into it at the time that was high and I was definitely watching elementary school shows. Yeah. ⁓
Cartoons. Yeah,
I mean, it was a little bit older, but it was still Saturday morning TV show. Very wholesome, you know, in the era of the wholesome family sitcom of major problems being addressed in 20 minutes or less. I don't remember much about the show or her in particular, but it was notable.
Right.
you know, it was essentially the same sort of thing of like going from Disney show to an NC-17 movie, you know, big image shift for her. And so I think that was notable as well just because of her starring in this.
Yeah, kind of similar to the career path that Jessica Beale took after Seventh Heaven it was less extreme in her case, but she definitely stepped out of what was a really wholesome family show into more adult oriented movies and shows
if I'm not mistaken, this was the first movie that Berkeley starred in. So it was kind of her, I guess, coming out as a film actor. ⁓ Yeah. So the director was well-known, well-accomplished, the writer as well. I don't know if I can pronounce his name, Joe Esterhaus. Esterhaus? Okay. Joe, I can pronounce that.
Mm-hmm.
What a doozy.
That's how I'd say it, yeah.
Joe also wrote Basic Instinct. He wrote Sliver. But I couldn't this, but according to Wikipedia, at the time of this, salary from this script and others made him the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood history.
And so yeah, a lot of expectation for this movie. And again, critics hated it. And audiences did at the time too, so.
Yeah.
Yeah, this was right in the middle of Paul Verhoeven's peak. It was like one banger after another and then this kind of came out and they didn't love it.
Yeah,
well, we'll talk about Berkeley too, but I think this was her peak her debut and her peak, unfortunately,
Okay, do you want to give us a quick overview of the story and we can start talking about the movie itself?
Sure.
Elizabeth Berkley plays a character called Nomi Malone. The movie kicks off with her arriving in Las Vegas with dreams of becoming a showgirl. And she meets a woman named Molly, who is a costume designer for this hit show called Goddess at the Stardust. And Nomi gets a job stripping at a club called Club. And while she's there, she meets the star of
the goddess, Crystal Connors, who's Gina Gershon's character. And there's kind of a bitter rivalry that kicks off between them. And she also meets Crystal's boyfriend, Zach, who's Kyle McLaughlin's character. And with his help, Nomi gets a spot in the show goddess dancing and eventually becomes Crystal's understudy.
do you think about the premise and the story in this movie overall?
I like the premise. think that a story about a dancer trying to make it big in Las Vegas could be very interesting. There's definitely a lot to explore there with like the competitiveness with other dancers and the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas and just show business in general. So I think that there's a lot that you can explore there. And as a premise, it's...
Pretty solid, I think.
Yeah. Yeah. I think the story itself is pretty sound and it's interesting. What burning questions did you have once you started to watch the movie?
there's this part where she's auditioning for the show, Goddess, and the guy who is the show runner is this super creepy, sleazy guy.
he's kicking girls out of the audition. Like, like it's a bodily function. just gets rid of them. and then he's get, he gets it down to about three girls and Nomi's one of them. And he's like, take your tops off. And they all seem offended. This is a topless show. What did they think they were auditioning for?
There are a lot of moments like this in the movie for me where I don't really understand what the characters were thinking what's happening around them and why they're doing what they're doing.
Yeah.
And there's so many moments where it's like Nomi's character is pissed off at somebody and then the next scene she's fine. And I don't understand the flip-flopping of so many characters in this movie.
Yeah, and to give away a little bit of the ending, The whole movie, she's dodgy about who she is and where she's from. And it's not really until the very end of the movie that we find out basically running away from a life of prostitution. And that explains why she.
Yeah.
so negatively because there's several times in the movie where the lead dancer, Crystal, says that she's a whore. She calls her a whore. We're all whores. We're all, you know, commodifying ourselves. And she gets really upset and we don't ever know why until the very end. I think if we had known that sooner, it would have made a lot more sense.
Right.
Yep. Selling our bodies for money in one way or the other. Yeah.
Throughout the whole movie, I'm like, why is she reacting so negatively to all of this stuff? it's not the worst thing I'm sure she's ever been called.
100 % agree with you. One of my hot takes that I wrote down was this movie would be way better if they started out by introducing her Seeing a character arc unfold on screen would just be much more compelling and understanding where she was coming from, why she was running away from that. I mean, the answers to that are somewhat obvious. I'm not asking for like
Yeah.
30 minutes of the backstory, but even just five minutes, It starts with her on the road to Las Vegas and we don't see any of that life before she goes to Las Vegas to become a dancer. So going back in the movie a little bit, it wasn't just her motivation around why she was so offended by certain scenes or actions.
things like that. was also just where did this desire to become a dancer come from? And that is never explained. Also, it doesn't seem like she had any training or background, like even as a little girl was she dancing?
I can generally tell when somebody's a good dancer and bad dancer, but I can't really talk about dance with any sort of intelligence But, the first time we see her dance is that this nightclub, what the fuck was that dancing that. Yes, it was like, ⁓ yeah, just very violent and jerky and not appropriate for the music.
It was extremely manic.
and not at all what anybody else in the club was doing.
No.
No, it reminded me of Dee from Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Like it seemed like comedic dancing.
Yeah.
Exactly. Or Elaine with her, you know, her like jerky motions.
Yeah,
a full body dry heave set to music.
And then it was just really confusing because we have a major character, James, come over and he's just stricken by her dancing you have so much talent you don't even know.
Yeah, I
know dancing. He's just a bouncer. There.
Yeah,
she's supposed to be this great dancer and, yeah, we just never see where that drive comes from. Why Las Vegas is this Mecca for her or any of that stuff.
Yeah, there's a scene during the audition where the producer is asking the girls what training they have and some of them have a lot of training and they get to her and she's just like, fuck you. I don't have any. So like, I don't know if that's true. We don't ever learn, but yeah, she doesn't seem to have training.
Hahaha.
So I'm not a dancer. You're not a dancer unless you have some secret talent you haven't shown me or told me in the 30 years I've known you. But I guess this is a common movie trope where an instructor is like, all right, here's the dance. One, two, three, and then like.
I'm not gonna reveal it here.
all the dancers just start doing that exact same dance? Yeah, can dancers actually do that?
Get it instantly.
She never missed anything in the movie. Like she saw it once and then could do it perfectly.
No.
Not only that, but like James, this guy she meets, he choreographs a dance for her. He starts showing her the dance and then she just starts doing it with him. And she knows it intuitively. I mean, I know like it's also a trope where musicians like, okay, they listen to like 30 seconds of the song and they're like, all right, I got it. And like some of that some repetition, but like,
She knows it.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
These this dance didn't seem like that.
do seem to be able to pick that up. I don't know if you watched the Beatles documentary when they were making their final album, but they were teaching their songs to the other Beatles and it was impressive how quickly they they picked it up and knew what it was going to be. So maybe it does happen with really talented people, but I don't
The actress had a lot of training ⁓ in real life. Elizabeth Berkeley.
Yes.
And one good thing I can for sure say is she did seem to do the numbers really well. the first time we see her dancing, that was the only time that was like, what the hell is this? ⁓
Yeah.
Elizabeth Berkeley I want to talk about her a little bit at the end I felt watching this like she perfected a form of acting that I want to call tantrum acting there's so many scenes of her just flailing around and acting like a five-year-old
Yeah.
Yeah.
And
she loses her suitcase and she's just like throwing herself on this car in a parking lot and banging on it and like just whipping her hair out and all that. I mean, like a five-year-old would. And yeah, she meets this woman who lets her live with her and essentially gets her a job and all this stuff. Like, what would it take for you to give some random stranger in Las Vegas, your couch to live on?
Yeah. It's Molly's car. That's how she meets Molly.
It would never happen. I would not do that. ⁓
Yeah,
she seemed crazy. She takes her for a meal, which fine, and then she like throws a bunch of fries up in the air.
Did you see how she poured ketchup on it? She was just shaking it and it flying everywhere. She also won a bunch of coins at the casino and just starts throwing them up in the air, which she throws a lot of things up in the air in the first like 10 minutes of this movie.
Yeah, I had a general question too of like, what's up with her and food? There's a scene where she gets a burger and The way she bites the burger is super weird. Like she's like almost like violently nibbling it. And, and then she just throws it out of the, she just throws it out of the car. she's taken three bites.
Yeah, it's ravenous
Yeah, she
she throws her fries all up in the air too because she just gets mad at the questions Molly's asking. They're not even like rude questions. They're like, where do you come from and things like that? She's back east and she throws everywhere. It's really manic. I've read some theories on her her acting in this movie.
Yeah.
that it's intentionally manic and over the top. And I don't buy it, but some people seem to think it could be. I I ultimately think that this movie is a satire and her performance could be a satire of...
really performative sexuality and things like that, but I don't buy it.
We should talk about James
Yeah, so she meets this guy James and he's enamored with her talent. He kind of stalks her for a while. She's working at a strip club and in on her doing a private dance and, and I wrote down, there's no way he's getting to the door there. And he like lingers for a bit before.
Yeah.
No.
Thankfully, Bouncer said something, but I was like, this is not gonna happen.
Yeah.
and then there's this big scene where they're talking and his quote, I had to write it down. they're arguing and he says, saw you, man. Everybody got AIDS and shit. You know, what is it that you think you do? You fuck them without fucking them. Well, that ain't right. ⁓ What is this dialogue?
Yeah.
She's a stripper. What do you think a lap dance is?
Yeah.
I don't understand why he's mad and what, but he keeps pursuing her he stalks her to the strip club. He stalks her to her house. She like basically tells him to go to hell each time. And then finally she doesn't get the part she thinks at the goddess show.
I don't either.
Mm-hmm.
And she comes out and he happens to be working as a valet there. And then he's like, let me take you for one of the best meals in town, which I guess is that burger she throws out the window. ⁓ this is another one of those points where she's like, okay. they like walk off happily. And it's like, this guy's been stalking you and you've been mad at him this whole time. Like what changed? also.
It's just a burger, yeah.
We talked about in our last episode, red flags. This dude, serious red flags and he's not rich and handsome enough, but, ⁓ he's no Christian gray. Let's just say that. ⁓ are you getting in the car with this dude?
Yeah.
Yeah,
No.
No.
I think that. Perhaps for women who are vulnerable, they might look for any port in a storm, and maybe he seemed to be like somebody who would take care of her. So I don't I don't know. I wouldn't have. I'd rather sleep on the street than go with this guy.
Yeah.
I mean, she has somewhere to stay. It's not like, and so he takes her back to his place and then reveals that he's written the show for her, which couldn't have said that from the, I mean, that would be way more compelling. Everything he was doing was super creepy rather than just leading with like, Hey, I think you're a great dancer. I'm writing a show and I want you to start.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like that's the hook. That's how to get her back to your place. Yeah. But then it turns out he's a creep anyway. And he's doing this over and over with a bunch of different women. And then the storyline just kind of ends with them he does put on the show. Is that show supposed to be good?
Yep. Start there. That's the elevator pitch.
Mm-hmm.
Well the crowd hated it they they were booing and like throwing stuff and jeering and Even the MC was like well enough of that shit on to the real dancing At the end of the performance, so I don't know if it was supposed to be good She seemed to be upset that they were booing him I don't know if that was just because she liked him or if she thought it was actually good
Yeah.
Yeah, I just didn't understand that relationship at all and it seemed to be all over the place.
Yeah, and there's a lot of time spent on this James storyline that ultimately doesn't pay off with anything. They don't get together. She doesn't even dance in his show that he wrote for her. And for a movie that is two hours and 11 minutes and doesn't really have much backstory for her character arc they could have cut the James.
plotline entirely. don't think it would have altered anything in the movie.
Nope, didn't
serve any of the main plot. It didn't serve any character development or insider.
Yeah, if they had spent that time focused more on her backstory or just more of a character development for any of the other characters, because there's a lot of characters in this movie, too many to talk about. But if they had spent some more time on that and no time on James, I would have been pleased with that.
Yeah.
Yeah. Speaking of characters that I didn't understand their relationship. It's fair to say I didn't understand any relationship in this movie. So, Nomi and James, I didn't understand. I didn't understand. I forgot her name, the friend that Molly, yeah, Nomi and Molly. I guess that's more straightforward, but it was like, why is Molly helping this person who is
Molly.
terrible to her points like sabotages her job. one of the biggest storylines is this relationship between No-Me and Crystal the lead in this. Yeah, in this got a show. I didn't understand their relationship at all. Every scene with them was hot cold like either they were fighting or they loved each other.
Mm-hmm.
She's a big star.
it wasn't even like they hated each other. And then by the end they grew to appreciate each other. It's like, they hate each other. And then Crystal gets her a job. They hate each other. And then Crystal gets her the understudy audition. They hate each other. And then that same day, Nomi comes in and nice to her. then.
Mm-hmm.
Did you get it? what was this relationship?
I didn't get it. I think that we with hindsight, once we learned that she's fleeing from prostitution, we get that the insults at the beginning about her being a whore like that upset her and justifiably so. But we don't know that. So the whole movie, I'm very confused about why she's so mad at her about everything. But then also it is unexplainable.
for why she flips and is like nice to her or why Crystal really does anything for NoMe. I don't know. I don't get it.
Yeah,
it's not clear why Crystal likes her. It's not clear why she hates her. at the end, it's not even like she was threatened by her. Noby pushes Crystal down the stairs and just injures her, takes her role in the show. And Crystal's like, yeah, I needed a rest anyway. Plus I'm getting an insurance settlement and they make out.
Like what? Like what the fuck reaction is that?
Yeah, it was very strange. It was hard to understand the motivations for this. I think because they didn't spend any time on backstory and they spent so much time on James and other meaningless things,
Can we talk about the show a little bit? Goddess at the Stardust. Stardust isn't around anymore, unfortunately. What is the show? Would you see the show?
No, I mean, I've never even been to a strip club, so I'm not I'm not into that type of thing. I took it as like a burlesque type show. ⁓ Yeah, but we don't ever see the monkeys in the show. They're just kind of running through the the back dressing rooms and things.
But they also have monkeys?
Ha
One of my favorite scenes is when they're eating at Spago and three cowboy looking guys come over with programs for goddess and ask
Mm-hmm.
Crystal to autograph them. Not really the type of guys that I would stereotype as being into dance and like they're just walking around Vegas with. Yeah, exactly.
or autographs.
Yeah, I mean you spend a fair amount of time in Vegas. Can you name a single famous dancer in Vegas right now?
Does Britney
Spears count? ⁓
I mean, just the ones you've seen, no, it doesn't count.
Just like even the ones you see on the top of ads on cabs and stuff driving around. Like I can't remember, I see them all the time, but I can't remember a single one of them.
Yeah.
I don't think this kind of show exists anymore. I mean, it's all been taken over by Cirque du Soleil or, you know, musicians who have read residencies who are well known. And yeah, I think, I think all the, dance type shows, they don't really have well-known stars. They don't try to advertise the person who's starring in it. That seems like more of a Broadway thing. This.
Yeah.
Yeah, Vegas
is definitely more family friendly now than it probably was in 1995 when this came out. ⁓
Yeah.
Also speaking of the Spago scene real quick, one of my favorite quotes is Crystal takes Nomi to Spago and Nomi sits down, does one of her Tantrum-y things with the menu. She like glances at the menu and just like, I don't know what any of this stuff is. I'm like, okay, I've eaten at Spago. It's pizza, pasta, seafood, salad, like all the things that you would expect.
You
One my favorite parts in the movie is there's this scene of basically sabotage where one of the dancers on stage drops these like diamonds or crystals or something on the floor. Yeah, essentially marbles while they're doing this dance it's men holding a woman above their head and spinning and the man steps on the marbles and falls and the girl
It's like barbels. Yeah.
busts her knee like really badly and she's laying there on on stage crying and holding her knee the whole time. And this like producer comes up at the end of the show and is checking her
She's feeling her leg and she goes, tell me when you feel something. And then there's like this crunch sound and she's like, it's her knee. Like we know it's her knee. She's been holding her knee for the last 20 minutes.
don't know if you notice that it's a live show when she falls down and she's just writhing on the ground in pain. And then the next scene where the producer comes up, the audience is gone. Did they finish the show with her just right there? I mean, that's. That's how it's cut. Yeah, everyone's still dancing around her and then just.
She's still there.
I don't know, they didn't pull her off or anything, like they just left her there. Yeah.
Yeah, they cut to the next scene and she's in the same position. I mean, Vegas has cut through it, I guess. Like we'll call the paramedics after the show is done.
Yeah, it was.
Yeah, we've got to talk about the pool scene.
Yeah. This is, think, the one scene from the movie that I had seen before, because I think it is famously campy.
Ha ha ha ha!
Yeah, it-
If you're not watching the video, the look of dread on Erin's face. Priceless. ⁓ Yeah, so she enters a relationship with the, what's his role? The talent director? No, the entertainment director.
Yeah.
I think, yeah,
director of some sort.
not clear why she sleeps with them. Like, is she doing it for the part? She didn't even know that there was an understudy role. ⁓ anyway, ⁓ yeah. how about you describe the scene?
Mm-hmm. This is Kyle McLaughlin's character.
Well, she gets a ride back to his place. They drink some champagne. They both get naked and get into the pool, which the pool was great. They had these big neon trees around it. And I thought the set was really awesome. Yeah. And she has sex with him up against the side of the pool, but she's just thrashing wildly through the water.
Yeah.
Dolphin fountains.
Ha
and like underneath the fountain. So she's just getting water poured into her face while she's thrashing around in the pool. was wild. I don't know. I've never seen anything quite like that before.
hahahaha
So you're saying
you've never had sex like that before? ⁓ Kudos to her for doing her own stunts. It seems like that would have hurt both of them ⁓ badly in different ways. I don't understand the direction in this.
Definitely not.
Yeah.
It didn't look comfortable or erotic to me.
Yeah, if there's one scene from this movie that you should watch, it's this scene.
Yeah.
Do you think the characters in this movie know what an understudy is?
there's this big, I guess, plot point about, maybe Nomi can be the understudy. But then Crystal gets mad and sabotages Nomi Like she doesn't want an understudy. she's still the star of the show.
Why does anybody care that there will be a new understudy?
Yeah, especially why does Crystal care? Like I can understand the other girls in the show being really competitive for that role. But really there was no sabotage from the other girls. It was just from Crystal, which I don't know why she would even care. She's already helped this woman get the job and has kind of fostered her along,
Yeah.
Then there's another scene where all the producers are like, how long is Crystal going to be out? We can't shut down the show. The show must go on. Let's take a gamble.
and make the understudy that I mean, like that's, I feel like there wouldn't even be that conversation. You'd be like, our star is hurt. Let's just have the understudy go on.
Yeah, plug
in the person that we've already selected and trained for this.
Exactly. And then why was Nomi the new star instead of the understudy they did pick? Yeah, I'm overthinking it.
I don't know. You might be right, they maybe don't know. Yeah,
I think you might be.
⁓ One of the first quotes I wrote down was some random guy at the slot machine. Yeah, sooner or later you're going to have to sell it. Like, okay, imagine?
I wrote that down too.
Yeah.
all your money, honey. Wanna make some
more? Won't take any more than 15 minutes. Gross.
Yeah. Like
saying you're going to have to sell it sooner or later.
Yeah,
She's just in Vegas for a weekend to have some fun. She's not there to sell herself.
Yeah.
⁓ Man, I know we're not the right people to say this, but yeah, guys must be terrible.
Yeah. another kind of funny dialogue that I wrote down was when Crystal and Nomi are having lunch and Crystal says, you have great tits. They're really beautiful. I like nice tits. Always have. How about you? And Nomi says, I like having nice tits.
That whole. Yeah, that whole scene was was full of top notch writing. They start talking about food and. Crystal talks about how she used to love. Dog food and nobody says I used to love doggy chow too.
Top, top notch writing.
Yeah.
they both were talking about how much they doggy chow. did they really both eat dog food in their past?
But it wasn't like it could have made sense if they were each like, yeah, I was so destitute that I had to resort to eating dog food. But that wasn't what they were talking about. I guess
it just seemed like they liked the taste of dog food.
Why the shade Brooks? Right off the bat, the hitchhiker guy, the guy that picks her up.
I don't know.
So there's, I'll tell you, there is a theory out there that Garth Brooks in real life is a serial killer.
Okay.
And that every town he goes to for like the last 30 years to do a show, there's been a disappearance or a murder that weekend or whenever he's in town. Maybe this is like our, we were warned in 1995 that he's a creep and nobody heard it. We're going to find out later that Garth Brooks is a serial killer and Showgirls tried to warn us.
Hahaha
Yeah.
Man, that would be excellent.
hot takes do you have?
So I did a lot of of reading up about this movie afterwards because I wasn't sure how to feel about it. but I didn't hate this movie And especially reading like knowing about Paul Verhoeven's career, I was looking for satire and it was very subtle to me.
but,
the movie portrays these really terrible values and traits of kind of American culture, like hedonism and misogyny. But they do it so earnestly that it's really hard to watch.
So I think that there are a lot of interesting things that you could take away from this if you. If you're looking for that, but it's I think that it was really subtle and like I was halfway through the movie and I was like, I'm not getting the satire I was expecting. I was expecting RoboCop,
didn't really get that I can understand that somebody says that's there.
It was like, the things that these characters are doing are terrible. But I mean, I think for it to be really effective satire, it probably helps to be able to relate to the characters and to hold up a mirror to yourself and to society or to have a character that you can see the bad behavior through their eyes
And so it didn't show me anything.
that we don't all know. And like, didn't show me anything about this world that either felt real or believable or felt like, okay, I, now I get it. Like I have an insight into this world. And I mean, so part of that is I thought the acting was terrible. I thought the story was terrible. The dialogue was terrible.
You
And so it didn't make it didn't it didn't like put me in that world I didn't watch this movie. I'm like, now I finally see what what it's like for a stripper behind the scenes or for a, you know, dancer behind the scenes, a showgirl in Las Vegas to compare, guess it's this movie.
Mm-hmm.
wasn't a satire, the last show girl came out. Was that last year with Pamela Anderson in the lead? yeah, I didn't love the movie, but it was a very realistic portrayal. It felt like of life behind the scenes for the show girls and Pamela Anderson's character in particular. And
Haven't seen it.
⁓ I felt like Jamie Lee Curtis was awesome in that movie. her character and the, and the realism that she, she brought to that and just the feeling for her and that, you know, that type of person. it, transported me to that world. This did not the whole time. I'm like, what does she like when you can't even eat a fucking burger like a normal person. It's hard for me to like, you know, feel like these are real.
Mm-hmm.
characters and teach me through them.
Yeah, but I don't think Paul Verhoeven's really ever have like super real characters. They're all kind of caricatures. ⁓ So I think that I do agree with you, though, that I I think that the characters are where this movie falls short. They're not believable or or likable. And if they had spent that time they spent on the James storyline on
Sure. Okay. Yeah.
making these characters likeable or relatable or at least seem real, that it would have been more successful. It's not a perfect movie by any means, even if you take it through the lens of this is a critique of American society. I think they should have spent that time making us like the characters.
Even if they weren't good characters, you know, even if it wasn't a good guy or a good woman, if we related to them or rooted for them in any way, I think it would have been better.
I mean,
there are hundreds of movies that I've enjoyed with central and supporting characters that are terrible. they're no good, likable characters in the movie, but that are, know, much better movie. mean, name any crime movie or gangster movie, and it's not like, yeah, I see myself in that person because of what he's doing.
Mm-hmm.
But it's like you see the humanity in them or they ⁓ just seem believable and you're transported into that world.
Yeah, I think that that's what makes the difference between this, which is maybe a cult favorite, but not widely regarded as a great and I mean, they're not movies, but like the Sopranos or Breaking Bad where they're not likable characters, but you do in a way root for them or relate to them in a lot of ways. So I think that this movie could have been better if they
took that approach. But I don't think that that is necessarily Paul Verhoeven's strong suit as a director.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I guess the last point I'll make about satires for me, maybe I don't appreciate subtle satire, but I feel like satire generally hits you over the head with how the characters are. So to your point, in terms of like Robocop or they're over the top, but it's clear, like, this is an the top,
surreal fantasized world. Showgirls is presented as like a realistic world. And so it's weird to call that satire when you're when you're telling a story of just regular people. And maybe that explains some of Elizabeth Berkeley's acting is because her direction that she was given was to play it over the top. But like
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The story wasn't over the top and nobody else was as as over the as she was just like left on an island with her performance.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure that I buy that her performance is intentionally over the top. I think that, you know, in retrospect, you could maybe assign that quality to it, but I don't think it was, intentional in the moment.
to spend a little bit of time talking about her, I feel bad for her as a person because, the short of it is this started her film career and ended it. She's not starred in a movie since this. ⁓ I
wow, I didn't know that.
had some supporting roles and I, I think her PR team has gone to work on her Wikipedia because in the career section after this, mentioned several times how she spent time with such and such acting teacher and it talks over and over about the
Ha
the acclaim she got for some of her supporting roles and like critics have, I guess, come around on her in those roles, but it doesn't seem like that's translated into her having, starring roles on film at least. the director has come out and said after the fact that yeah, it was, it was on him.
Mmm.
she was following his direction in terms of why she played it that way. So I guess I believe it that, was largely her performance was because of the director.
Interesting. That's too bad.
wanna get into Verdict or?
Yeah, so I already touched on it a little bit. I didn't like this movie. How about you?
I did like it. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I thought that the, the costumes were great. there was a gag dress in the beginning. There was this, ⁓ woman who was like the MC at the cheetah. ⁓ she would come out between acts and tell jokes and she was supposed to be the comic relief in the, cheetah club. And she had this dress where if she moved her arms a certain way.
Yeah.
her top would come down automatically and then they would come back up. I thought that was kind of funny. I laughed at that I thought the soundtrack was good, not exceptional, not as good as 50 Shades, but I didn't hate it. I ultimately kind of thought that the characters are where this movie was a letdown. They should have cut the James storyline and
focused more on developing the characters. I thought the directing was fine. There were cool shots. I liked the pool scene. the direction, like I thought that the lighting and the set was cool. The acting in that scene was ridiculous. was...
Like, you didn't think it?
fine
to agree to disagree, I guess.
I thought it was shot cool. Like I thought that the pool set was cool, which, if that was, if that was what the director told her to do in that scene, then I don't like the directing in that scene, but maybe I liked the, cinematography more than the directing. But yeah, overall, I liked it more than I thought it I would. It's definitely not my favorite Paul Verhoeven movie.
I don't think that this was strong satire, but I think that you could make a case that it was satire. And if you look at it through that lens on a rewatch, I think that it is a more enjoyable movie than if you just go in expecting it to be a straightforward story. I expected it to just be smut. So I kind of liked it more than I thought I would. And I think that
Of the movies we've watched, to me was a little bit of a hidden gem. I think that I would rewatch it. I'd give it three stars.
Yeah.
seems pretty strong. I will say the, yeah, the costume was good. Generally the cinematography and the setting and all that stuff was good. The dancing, like I said, except for that nightclub dancing, ⁓ seemed strong.
the work that Elizabeth Berkley must have done to get ready for this. I can't remember if it said she had any background as a dancer, but kudos. don't think.
six months or whatever of training would get me anywhere close to any of the people in this movie. yeah, that's good. I just didn't enjoy it at all. So
fair.
will say since we haven't really touched on this at all, we should give people a warning It's NC 17 for a reason. There's when you talk about costumes, I guess you have to say that the lack of costumes is also a big costume in this movie. There is full frontal nudity throughout. Yeah, I didn't research how many scenes or how many minutes of nudity, but
yeah.
Yes.
Let's just assume all. I felt uncomfortable watching this at home alone. ⁓ kids better not poke their head in at any point in this movie.
Yeah.
You
Yeah, I gave it an eight and a half out of 10 on the naughty scale ⁓ for the full nudity. I thought that I thought that the lap dance that she gave Kyle McLaughlin's character was way more explicit than the pool sex scene, which is like the famous scene of the movie.
Yeah.
Eight and a
Yeah, I agree.
Eight and a half though. What would be a 10?
Well, see, I
would have given 50 shades of gray a 10 before I saw this. And now I'm like, OK, that's like a seven. So I'm just leaving room for something else
Yeah.
I don't think we'll ever cover full-fledged porn on this podcast.
I'm just giving myself some leeway.
All
right, we've got a couple of movies to go in naughty November, but I feel pretty comfortable giving this a 10. I don't think you could get any more so.
Yeah.
Yeah, fair enough.
What are your alternate picks?
I picked Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. this movie is satire and so is Fear and Loathing in Las both satires set in Las Vegas. Fear and Loathing is more about the death of idealism among Hunter S. Thompson's generation, but perhaps unironically they
both find Las Vegas to be the perfect metaphor for that decay and and self-destructiveness that Americans seem to love. So I pick that for my alternate pick.
I picked two movies, one of them Bound from 1996, which stars Gina Gershon. Bound was the Warkowski's sibling's first movie, came out before Matrix. Have you ever seen it?
No, I have not even heard of it.
it was kind of an indie movie. stars Gina Gershon, Jennifer Tilly and Joey Pentoliano. and it's basically a like con scheme, kind of a crime thriller. and I watched it earlier this year and for the first time and,
great. mean, I'm not going to say it's a five-star movie, but, I think it's easy to enjoy. And Gina Gershwin, I'd say like, if I'd only watched, showgirls, I would have questioned her.
Mm-hmm.
her acting ability. I think she kind of plays a little over the top here too. Part of it is because I just didn't understand her character throughout, but Bound much well done. Then my second all pick is Anora from 2024. Best picture winner, best actress, best director. Also somebody that works as a stripper and tries to get a better life. And I think
Ha ha ha
Yeah.
movie that does a much better job in my opinion of putting you in that world and connecting you with the characters and it also has a lot of nudity and ⁓ well it's more than about the nudity but could be a turnoff is all I'm saying and but much better film.
If you're into that sort of thing.
You
in my opinion.
Nice.
All right, well, I think that's about all we have to talk about showgirls. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe on Apple or Spotify or wherever and shoot us an email at the worst movie podcast at gmail.com. Let us know if you thought this was satire or not satire or if you thought the pool scene was well directed like Aaron did, or if you thought it was terrible like I did.
This is slander.
Is it libel or slander?
Good question.
in a slender. I was just testing it. Yes.
Is libel written? Okay.
Well, if you didn't take anything else away from episode, take that
I am not a lawyer. don't fact check my definition and don't take legal advice. All right. I'm out of here.
That's legal advice.
I'm Aaron, thanks for listening to the Worst Movie Podcast.