The Last Showgirl

(PG) **

Last Gasp!

Running time: 1 h 29 m

Work is good. Sooner or later all people need to retire. Watch the fallout when a dancer needs to come clean in The Last Showgirl. Like the title to this Mongrel Media film suggests, here’s a movie about the ups and downs of a dancer. See this penetrating documentary now at select Cineplex Cinemas and Landmark Theatres around B.C. Before it arrives on streaming services.

Fresh off its world premiere at the recent Whistler film festival former Baywatch babe and ex-British Columbian Pamela Anderson returns to familiar territory and the big screen as Shelly. Life has been good for Shelly. Or so it seems. Long a staple “performer” in the Razzle Dazzle revue in Las Vegas all seems to be going well for the seasoned vet. But after 18 years on the job change is inevitable.

What The Last Showgirl does so well is its ability to get into the mindset of the dancers. People are people and we get up close and personal with the girls whose livelihoods all revolve around their physique. Age can be hard on people and aging has not gone well for Shelly. Anderson does a great job showing the emotional toll a cabaret dancer experiences with a life in front of the public.

Director Gia Coppola goes deep into the personal lives and personalities of the performers who make their livings showing off. Here the atmosphere is spot on as are the personal pettiness that many reveal which appears to be a pretty honest portrayal of this industry.

Bolstered by strong backup performances from most notably former James Bond baddie Dave Bautista The Last Showgirl is an honest portrait of the struggles aging has on people.

A Complete Unknown

(PG) ****

Rebel!

Running time: 2 h 21m

Born to rock. And to talk. That about sums up the story behind A Complete Unknown, the newest film from Searchlight Pictures. Now playing to sell-out audiences at Cineplex Cinemas and Landmark Theatres across B.C consider this biography to be a must see movie for fans of musical icons. Mind you, what else would you expect from master director James Mangold who always gets up and close and personal with his subject matter. Can you dig it?

Hot off his captivating role in Dune chameleon-like actor Timothée Chalamet turns his talents to bring the unbelievable life of Bobby Zimmerman to life. Oh, check that. This was this talented man’s name before he changed it to Bob Dylan and the rest, as they say, is history.

Here the cameras tracks this magical minstrel as he sought out and found his musical icon Woody Guthrie. Didn’t Guthrie or friend Pete Seeger know that this young nobody could write? And how! From playing tiny bars to headlining the prestigious Newport Folk Festival and its Monterrey California counterpart A Complete Unknown does an impressive job sketching out the life of an aloof loner who did his own thing, created his own songs and in the process took the world by storm.

Blessed with an impressive cast Including an almost unrecognizable Ed Norton here Mangold does an excellent job recreating the 60s with all the unrest over Vietnam and Civil Rights bubbling to the surface. Through it all Dylan’s somewhat tumultuous personal life and relationships are front and centre with Chalamet uncanny resemblance to the great one (sorry number 99) and his remarkable singing voice making for a remarkably entertaining two and a half hours.

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By Robert Waldman