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Showgirls (1995) is a cult classic about a young woman (Nomi) running off to Las Vegas after a tumultuous childhood. She befriends a kindly costume designer and moves in with her and then becomes a stipper to make ends meet while she pursues her dream of being a dancer. Ultimately she lands a gig on a Vegas Topless Review and the story evolves from there (the rest, I believe, would constitute spoilers).

We reviewed Showgirls for Episode 24 of Train Wreck Theater available March 18, 2021. Our assessment of the movie was, let's say, mixed. The storming out and arm flailing that Nomi (played by Elizabeth Berkley of Saved By The Bell fame) were credited as a large part of why she never really got any major roles again after this movie. The director of the movie has supposedly apologized to her as he asked her to flail and act like that but the critics saw it as an under-prepared actor doing a terrible job in a movie without a lot of sense of direction.

This is one of the least family-friendly movies we've reviewed on Train Wreck Theater (and that is saying something) as it has a lot of depictions of sexual harassment and assault. It brings up a lot of serious issues that have plagued not just the Vegas showgirls community but countless other industries. Had this movie had more of an impact it is possible that it could have jump started a precursor to the #MeToo movement, but the lack of direction, the overacting, the gratuitous nudity, and the sub-par dialog left it in the discount bin of movie history.