Directed by Paul Verhoeven • 1995 • United States, France
Starring Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon
Unbound by musty notions of “good taste,” SHOWGIRLS goes farther than any other film of the 1990s in its orgiastic depiction of consumerism, crass spectacle, and the dark side of the American Dream. Elizabeth Berkley (in a tour de force of hysterical excess) stars as Nomi, a tough-as-nails drifter with a go-it-alone attitude and a murky past, who arrives in Las Vegas and sets about trampling on everyone around her—including Gina Gershon’s evil-seductive nightclub diva—as she fights her way up from stripper in a sleazy club to star showgirl. With its deliciously overripe dialogue and nigh-unhinged performances, SHOWGIRLS is both a delirious star-is-born satire and a terrifying vision of capitalism’s corruption of the soul.
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Heaven’s Gate
Directed by Michael Cimino • 1980 • United States
Starring Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John HurtA breathtaking depiction of the promise and perils of America’s western expansion, HEAVEN’S GATE, directed by Michael Cimino, is among Hollywood’s most ambitious and unorthodox epics. Kri...
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Ishtar
Directed by Elaine May • 1987 • United States
Starring Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle AdjaniOnce synonymous with “box-office bomb,” this unjustly maligned road-movie comedy from national treasure Elaine May has been on a steady path to critical respectability ever since its disastrous ...
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Cruising
Directed by William Friedkin • 1980 • United States
Starring Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, Karen AllenOne of the most notorious films of the 1980s, this controversial thriller directed by William Friedkin (THE EXORCIST, THE FRENCH CONNECTION) stars Al Pacino as Steve Burns, an NYPD officer who goes ...
