In Hollywood they have got better at representing what women on a daily basis go through and what women in everyday life go through with misogyny and sexism but the one thing in my opinion that is most underrepresented especially in Hollywood is ageism, 2024 was a huge year for women empowerment and revealing the true depths of ageism that is in Hollywood Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance do a fantastic job in different ways of showing the ageism that is rife in everyday life and especially Hollywood,And for all the representation that these films and more have brought to the forefront I find it sad and hilariously ironic that with a great year of older women in leading roles that the Academy still awarded the younger women the best actress and that’s nothing against Mikey she was fantastic in Anora.
Pamela Anderson should’ve been nominated for a Oscar in my opinion and is awesome in this playing a ageing Las Vegas Showgirl called Shelly who after learning they are stopping the show struggles to deal with the rejection of the ever evolving world towards women of certain ages and how disposable they are, And the tough back and forth relationship with her estranged daughter which is played greatly by Billie Lourd and their relationship really cuts through and you feel all of the pain of Hannah towards her mom.
Jamie Lee Curtis is wonderful as always and puts in what could’ve been a Oscar nomination in my opinion and plays Annette who is a ex Showgirl turned cocktail waitress who’s Shelly’s best friend and is pretty much at rock bottom, She’s hard drinking got a gambling addiction and she’s just unapologetically herself and is someone who doesn’t ever plan on retiring as she said in the film “I’m gonna work. Then I’m gonna work some more. And then I’m gonna die.” She also has a dance scene and I don’t know why I felt it was so empowering and says a lot without words
Brenda Song and Kiernan Shipka play 2 showgirls who are both close to Shelly and also at times a source of anger for Shelly as they talk about modern shows which Shelly sees as nothing more than risqué low class shows, But they ultimately have a really nice bond with them seeing her as their mom figure and even with disagreements and things trash happen in the film they are there for Shelly.
Finally we get to Dave Bautista one of my personal favourites he plays Eddie the producer at the club and someone who has a complex relationship with Shelly but what Dave gives is a really nuanced laid back performance really showing how far he’s come as a actor, He really shows how broken Eddie is he seems like someone just going through the motions and leaves at the first sign of trouble but he also comes across as someone who’s a loving caring guy and you can tell the feelings he’s got for Shelly.
The last couple things I want to talk about is how great the cinematography, music and direction is Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s cinematography is brilliant some of the shots and quick cuts I absolutely loved and he’s previously worked on some Marvel stuff but now he’s done this and has worked on the upcoming Sinners.
The music not only the score for the film by Andrew Wyatt is great but also the use of songs that add so much to the emotion and scene especially Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of The Heart.
Finally the direction well what can I say the Coppola dynasty lives on Gia did a incredible job and I’m excited for her next project seeing her pour her love and talent into this she like other family members can bring incredible performances from people and tell great nuance stories.
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