By Darren Johnson
Campus News
Note:
While it costs a little more than my other streaming subscriptions, and doesn’t have the same quantity of content as Netflix, HBO Max is worth the price based mostly on their ability to curate and capture the zeitgeist of what may be interesting at this particular point in time.
Here is a quick review of an older movie that recently queued on the service. I may keep doing these HBO Max reviews each week, if there’s interest.
Showgirls (1995)
It’s the 30th anniversary of this much mocked movie.
I have to admit, the avalanche of horrible reviews from when it was released convinced me to avoid it … until now. Back in 1995 when “Showgirls” debuted, I was working as an editor at a newspaper that subscribed to many wire services for me to scan, and the bad reviews for this movie kept rolling in from the myriad papers that fed the wire.
Common criticisms of “Showgirls” at the time was it was gratuitously sexual and poorly written. So I wrote it off — not worth my money to buy a ticket, or even rent at Blockbuster.
Funny how I used to trust critics.
It stars Elizabeth Berkley of “Saved by the Bell” fame, which also was low-brow fare.
However, you have to remember, 1995 was a different era. Newspapers were very powerful, and movie critics who wrote for them were well-paid and entrenched, acting as a moral authority of sorts, and also a bit elitist.
But now, in these more trying — even dystopian-feeling — times, I find myself wanting to see movies from the perspective of everyday people. For example, I recently enjoyed the comedy series “Tires” on Netflix, about a bunch of dysfunctional mechanics at a chain tire shop. I’m wanting to watch stories about people who haven’t been touched by the hand of God.
I also find myself interested in that “in-between” Las Vegas era — the time between “Casino” (also a 1995 release, but it was a look-back to the city’s early gangster era) and the over-the-top commercialization of Las Vegas today, with three sports stadiums now in the middle of the city and everything wildly overpriced.
“Showgirls,” along with “Leaving Las Vegas” and even “Vegas Vacation,” show us that brief period when Vegas was practically down and out, and not all that glamorous and family friendly.
As far as the gratuitous sex goes, two thoughts: 1. “Showgirls” was released before the Internet became the Internet, and far worse things can be easily found today in what has become the entertainment mainstream; and, 2. Maybe there’s a certain honesty in what this film is saying about such sexual exploitation, in retrospect, considering what we know now about Weinstein, Epstein, Cosby, Diddy, etc. There is a celebrity-led rape scene in the movie that perhaps at the time seemed quite improbable to critics.
Berkley does a great job playing Nomi, the main character, who shows up in Vegas as an unknown, wanting to be a dancer — we only learn her true story at the end of the movie.
Sure, the movie is tacky at times, but so was Vegas in the 1990s, when topless follies were still a thing. Maybe it’s not bad writing but instead writing that actually captures the feel of a time and place.
If you have avoided this movie, as I had, because of its poor reception 30 years ago, perhaps, seeing it through a 2025 lens, you might think it’s actually quite watchable now and wonder what all the disdain was about back then.
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