It's Pamela Anderson Like You've Never Seen Her Before

You're about to understand why Pamela Anderson received a Golden Globe nomination for her starring role in The Last Showgirl. The Gia Coppola-directed film, premiering Friday, has an 80% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with much talk of the commitment and vulnerability Anderson shows on screen.

• It's a "somber, character-driven drama that offers Anderson a meaty role, one she savors and masters in every scene," writes Randy Myers at the San Jose Mercury News, noting the performance "is most certainly worth awards notice." Anderson plays Shelly, a dancer who's devoted 30 years of her life to a Las Vegas show now at its end. The film "pulls back the curtain on the sexism and ageism that these women encounter," and throughout, Anderson "never hits one phony note," writes Myers.

• "The Last Showgirl is no more than a sketch of a movie," but Anderson is "unforgettable," delivering a "quietly devastating performance" that begins with impressive vulnerability in the first scene, writes ABC News' Peter Travers, who also heaps praise on fellow cast members. Former pro wrestler Dave Bautista offers "a gentle, beautifully modulated performance as Eddie, the stage manager," while Jamie Lee Curtis gives "show-stopping bravura" as Annette, a former showgirl turned waitress "clutching at a parody of lost youth."
• Anderson is certainly committed but she hasn't leveled up as an actor in the view of David Fear at Rolling Stone. "The movie bends over backwards to give this character a sense of dignity, and the sheer amount of labor shows," he writes. He argues Coppola doesn't do her lead any favors "by continually cutting away to slo-mo scenes of Anderson twirling around outside and staring forlornly at the horizon, which gives off heavy student-film vibes."

• But for the New York Times' Manohla Dargis, the "modestly scaled and loosely plotted" film "transcends expectations." Curtis is "sensational," Anderson is "dazzling," and "Vegas has rarely looked more seductive" than under Coppola's touch, writes Dargis, who gives the flick the "critic's pick" seal. Plus, the director has a "gift for expressing the intangible and the ephemeral" and "makes you see Shelly's wounded sensitivities and feel them too."

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