Showgirls

After fashioning a string of quality Danish films that were vital and always transcending genre limitations (including Turkish Delight and Soldier of Orange), Paul Verhoeven came to America and directed several action films, such as Robocop and Total Recall. However, while neither of these is necessarily a bad film, nor are they as filled with ideas as Verhoeven's Danish work. As a result, when the epic disaster Showgirls (1995) came out with his name attached, people lined up to critique the film before even watching it. This is a mistake, since the film harbors a critique of success, show biz, and dreams even as it also harbors a performance so awesomely bad by Elizabeth Berkley that it becomes the stuff of legends.

The film chronicles Nomi (Berkley) and her attempt to climb the ladder of the Vegas showgirl industry, charting her struggle from sleazy strip clubs into socially accepted artistic success. The oddity, though, is that Nomi lacks sophistication and cannot fashion a self-identity that is not grounded in performance, since she is very much a woman of below average intelligence background, and Berkley (though unintentionally) never allows any actual intelligence to register in her performance. As Nomi works to create her in in the Vegas industry, she insults Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon), the town star and showgirl Idol. What follows is Cristal slowly creating complication and subterfuge for Nomi, and Nomi lashing out to fashion her success by foreclosing any moral fiber from her being.

Berkley's horrendous performance is largely what makes this such marvelous and trashy fun. While Berkley is pretty much godawful in every acting way imaginable, registering only broad emotions of anger and jubilation, so that her performance vacillates between these two extreme emotions and never allows for any interior motivation, the rest of the film is campy but quality. That is, Gershon and the others create real characters from these broad strokes, layering a film that thereby becomes a critique at the mechanizations of entertainment industry. Since Nomi makes it big, Showgirls encapsulate a solid critique at Hollywood, the starmaking process, and how the bitter but talented stars (Gershon) will eventually be overrun by the bitter and shallow stars (Berkley).

Viewers may have a hard time reconciling character motivations for this film, which is simultaneously what allows it to exist as camp masterpiece and mainstream failure. Why, for instance, does Molly, Nomi's roommate, act so caustic toward Nomi after she suspects Nomi of plotting to get rid of Cristal yet then immediately turn back around and show up to Nomi's breakthrough party to bed the singer Andrew Carver. There was a lapse in reason that weakened the connection Verhoeven obviously wanted to create with his crosscuts, but beyond these types of plot and dialogue incongruity the film strangely works.

While not the most sophisticated fare, Verhoeven's film offers a study of successful metaphor through unintentional failures, so that one finally wonders if Berkley's horrific performance is necessary to give the film its importance. Slant certainly seems to think so. Not a classic, but certainly engaging viewing.

Showgirls: 7.5/10