Nomi's a girl with hooker makeup and a leather jacket, and nearly everything makes her angry. You won't fall in love with her, you may not be titillated by her, but... Hey, let's be honest, your mileage may vary in general with Showgirls. But anyway, its about her trying to make it dancing in Las Vegas, and her All About Eve relationship with Gina Gershon's character.
There's definitely something strange and sinister going on here that has nothing to do with titillation. The problem is, it comes across as tawdry exhibitionism. You have to look beyond the boobs and into the cold and spiky performance from lead actress Elizabeth Berkley. Its a strange one: when she's not angry, she's bratty and entitled. The narrative, such as it is, buckles badly 50 minutes in under its massive lack of stakes or anything interesting happening. So I can understand the Razzies and the hatred.
When I was younger, Showgirls was always a guilty pleasure for me because of the nudity. Looking at it now, I'm baffled as to why. In Showgirls, sex is almost warfare. Its an open act of aggression. The strippers are openly hostile towards the clientele the entire time, and in general have this mutually abusive relationship. There's always violent thrusting or swearing. Its actually pretty interesting, but you have to see it enough times so you're not titillated any more to get to the message, which is a pretty obvious one about the abusiveness of the sex industry that nevertheless didn't earn the film any respect. But how can you blame us when it was marketed as softcore porn. Well, a lesson for next time I guess.
There's definitely something strange and sinister going on here that has nothing to do with titillation. The problem is, it comes across as tawdry exhibitionism. You have to look beyond the boobs and into the cold and spiky performance from lead actress Elizabeth Berkley. Its a strange one: when she's not angry, she's bratty and entitled. The narrative, such as it is, buckles badly 50 minutes in under its massive lack of stakes or anything interesting happening. So I can understand the Razzies and the hatred.
When I was younger, Showgirls was always a guilty pleasure for me because of the nudity. Looking at it now, I'm baffled as to why. In Showgirls, sex is almost warfare. Its an open act of aggression. The strippers are openly hostile towards the clientele the entire time, and in general have this mutually abusive relationship. There's always violent thrusting or swearing. Its actually pretty interesting, but you have to see it enough times so you're not titillated any more to get to the message, which is a pretty obvious one about the abusiveness of the sex industry that nevertheless didn't earn the film any respect. But how can you blame us when it was marketed as softcore porn. Well, a lesson for next time I guess.