The Film Buffa Reviews: ‘The Last Showgirl’, ‘Better Man’, and ‘Unstoppable’

The last of the 2024 awards early releases are finally reaching the Midwest.

January isn’t just a dumping ground for the first studio releases of the year, ones that are too afraid to dance with the big dogs of spring and summer. It’s also a time where the awards movies reach the rest of the country. Movies that were released in New York and Los Angeles to qualify for the Oscars and other awards, but didn’t exactly sprint to St. Louis theaters. This month, the facade comes down on several of those early risers.

Here’s a look at three movies, starting with a Pamela Anderson drama that has the former Baywatch star poised for a legit shot at a Best Actress nomination.

THE LAST SHOWGIRL

Expanding last week into St. Louis movie theaters, this Las Vegas-set story centers around Shelly (Anderson), a longtime showgirl whose show is ending after 30 years. Shelly’s world falls apart right as she attempts to reconnect with an adult daughter who got pushed aside for her mother’s career. Anderson makes you feel all of it, giving some fire to any career that thinks the end is near.

She belongs in the same club that Demi Moore talked about being shoved into at an early stage of her career: Popcorn actress. I’m sure many times in her Hollywood days, Anderson was told that the cover of a swimsuit model calendar or some adult magazine would be the height of fame. Now, she’s got a good shot at being to attach “Academy Award nominee” to her future work.

The film works as a nice little tale, a simplistic look at a way of life being deconstructed, one big show at a time. Instead of merely walking out on stage and doing some spins or taking off their clothes, these showgirls put on a Cabaret show and put some style into the work. Dave Bautista is fantastic as the show manager Eddie, sporting Kurt Russell hair and adding a soulful restraint to a guy who paints sadness all across his face. You feel the past connection between Eddie and Shelly, and the film never has to fully explain it.

If the movie has a true standout performance, it comes from Jamie Lee Curtis as Anderson’s mother. Working in a casino and keeping her own dancing passion going, the actress gives another intense yet completely lived-in performance. I’d love to see Curtis’s matriarchs from Showgirl and The Bear hang out sometime.

The Last Showgirl reminds us that the best parts of the story are left for our heads to determine, because the actors work so much better with shades of gray. At a hair under 90 minutes, Gia Coppola’s movie reminds us that we’re merely trying to hold onto what we’re good at for as long as time will allow it.

UNSTOPPABLE

When you have Don Cheadle and Jennifer Lopez, the film can definitely travel. But a story about the courageous Anthony Robles-born with one leg who competes for a National Championship in wrestling at Arizona State-carries all the fire it needs.

Jharrel Jerome shines as Robles, giving the character backbone and soul to go with the incredible physical feats he was able to pull off. What he did with one leg is much more than most can manage to do with two, an accomplishment that was especially impressive in a sport that involved two athletes on a mat trying to get the best of each other. Competing in the world of college wrestling, where tactics are key, would have been a movie. The success Robles found makes it even richer.

Cheadle and Lopez, along with a very good Michael Pena, make all the big moments hit for extra power. Lopez goes understated in the role of the fiery mother behind the incredible son; she could have hammed it up and still produced a good performance. Her tone choice fits Unstoppable snugly, though. When given decent material, she’s still an underestimated actress.

Robles was underestimated by just about every kid who stood in front of him in a match, but they found out quickly. This is a solid biopic that has a focused story and good if not award-worthy work from the cast.

BETTER MAN

Inventive ideas in screenplays, ones that attempt to tell a story in a different way, are always welcome at the party. Two tales don’t need the same treatment, and art is something that constantly evolves. Having said that, the main twist or fancy gimmick in this musician biopic wears out its welcome halfway into the runtime. Instead of casting a young actor or de-aging the real guy, the story of Robbie Williams’ rise to British pop star fame is told with a CGI monkey taking the place of young, older, and old Robbie.

At first, it’s a wicked plan. The subject is interesting enough, especially when taking into account his upbringing and rise/fall/rise career. As a member of Take That, Williams excelled but didn’t find his true calling until his solo career commenced. All of this is told through Williams voiceover and a monkey interacting with human actors throughout an overlong film.

At 135 minutes, Better Man felt like a movie with 20 extra minutes attached. The CGI monkey gimmick runs dry and the amount of times that we see Williams-as-a-monkey running and singing across stage is just too much. If they did this with Elton John’s film, the results would have been so much different. Holding a 77 score on Metacritic and 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I didn’t feel the emotional brunt of the movie and it felt like a friend who stayed too long.

A music biopic shouldn’t feel exhausting, but after this was over I felt like it was me who played a full show. All I did was watch an overcooked concept run out its juice inside 60 minutes. Count me unimpressed with the movie, but not the man.

One more thing. With the weight of the damage from the wildfires in Los Angeles, it would be wise to delay the Oscars but an even better idea is to use the national telecast to raise money for victims. It doesn’t matter how much money one has, because these are homes being taken away. The majority of actors aren’t living the grand life with four homes; they’re hard-working folks who pay bills like us. The fact that the fire insurance was suspiciously cancelled last year before this mess paints a corrupt line across a severe tragedy.

Instead of a room full of pretenders glad-handing each other, raise some money for the entertainers who don’t get or need awards.