Showgirls (1995)

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Director Paul Verhoeven (Spetters, RoboCop) and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct) reteam for this stripper-style twist on A Star is Born and All About Eve. Elizabeth Berkley (Saved by the Bell) stars as a tough but naïve young woman with Las Vegas showgirl aspirations. She quickly learns how devious the environment and its denizens can be. She learns their wicked game and plays it well, starting out at a sleazy strip joint and working her way up to the headlining performer in a top (and topless) dance show — only to learn all that glitters isn’t gold.

Showgirls is infamous for its abundant nudity and campy one-liners, but that’s half the fun, really. I think Verhoeven and Eszterhas want us to laugh and not take the movie too seriously. Elizabeth Berkley doesn’t hit a home run with her performance, but she’s not bad. She’s just outshined, especially by co-star Gina Gershon (Killer Joe). Their hot-and-cold, part apprenticeship, part rivalrous relationship becomes the heart of the movie. It and Berkley’s friendship with a sympathetic seamstress (Gina Ravera) give us something to hold onto emotionally, while everything else in Showgirls is pretty much meant to titillate, shock, and awe.

If you’re expecting a more grounded genre picture like Basic Instinct, you’ll be disappointed. Berkley’s character transformation isn’t as dramatic as it probably should be, and the film’s climax feels a bit arbitrary. Not funny enough to be taken strictly as a comedy and not dark enough to prevail as a cautionary drama, Showgirls is ultimately a confounding movie. But as pulp fiction, it largely delivers the goods. It takes us on a colorful trip to a seedy underworld most of us would otherwise never experience. And it’s never boring.

With Kyle MacLachlan and Robert Davi.