Time for an advanced preview which is a preview, but its different. Its got a pre-recorded Q&A at the end of it & its availed for everyone to see not just us members, so off i go to see the last showgirl to see if Pam really is that good.

My screening was nearly full, however there were clearly people there who didnt know how the previews work because theres only 5mins of adverts then minimal trailers & then we start. So there was about 8 people who turned up like 10mins into the film. I mean it was still in the normal 25 mins of trailer times, but you could tell who the unlimited people were arriving 5 mins in knowing trailers were starting soon. Also the average age was mid 40s.

Trailers, Marching Powder (meh) Captain America (yes) Bridget (yes) Mickey 17 (yes) that was what we got. Interesting selection, i thought we might get something more artsy as we were getting a Q&A.

& then the film started… Pam is robbed of her oscar nomination.

& its easy to see where she should be. In place of that evil film that got all the nominations that we never want to talk about again because its vile. She embodied the character & really owned it & showed the glam & despair of aging in & out of hollywood & glamour. Very much an in thing with awards season this year for sure. But yea she was the perfect lead, being from the glory days of certain movies (if you know what i mean) to holding on to that fame & then having to deal with the new stuff. Yea she was glorious.

Dave Bautista… fuck a duck. Also phenomenal. Im not sure he deserved an oscar nomination for his performance as the production guy of the show, but it shows this man is an actor. If you watched this & you didnt know who he was in a past life & how he came to be an actor youd be like wow whos this understated actor, being so vulnerable & full of emotion & complexities. I loved him anyhow but now… hes going to win an oscar one day.

Was it meant to be filmed out of focus? There were a couple of points where i thought it was on purpose for dramatic effect, especially with the vegas lights & reminiscing, but then there was like a normal chatting scene, with no score & at points it wasnt properly in frame or out of focus. It felt rushed (we will get back to this in a bit).

I liked Billie, she was good & she so looks like her mum now.
Im not sure we really needed Jamie, i get the it showed a future she didnt want for herself but she basically turned up at points to be filler. It would have been better to have more time with the other girls that were at the shows for sure.

Those costumes, phenomenal. If you asked someone to draw a famous Vegas show girl, they would draw that. It was magical. Ive never been into that but even i felt nostalgic for it. I also felt nostalgic when i realised a few minutes in that this was set in the early 00s. Im not sure if i should go woohoo for being nostalgic for the 00s or go oh god im old.

It was a very simple story about how in a flash your life has moved on & you realise what you did & what you missed out on. It could have got a bit grittier, but it did feel like it was padding out to get to the 90min run time at points, it just needed to be a little bit braver.

We then had a Q&A which was pre recorded when the film was over, which was part of the reason for attending the almost month before advanced preview, so why did about 10 people leave before it. Seriously why would you do that. Also it was a short film, it wasnt like this was finishing at like 10:30pm it was 9:15.

It was really interesting to hear that they made this film in 18 days, so im guessing they had time restraints into filming some bits so im sorry for moaning about bits being out of focus but still. Just try a bit better.

I love how Pam talked about the whole process & how she thinks this is an important moment for film & creators & telling stories about the recent past & using actors who have been almost cast out by hollywood & let them bloom into a passion project. I also love how the phone call was completely improvised (got to love a land line).

This was a very sweet & simple film, i just wish it went a little bit further so then it could have got a few more awards this year, cos there are a lot worse films out there that are being lapped up over this.