Saturday, January 4, 2020

2019 - IN REVIEW: GUILTY PLEASURE


YOU DON'T NOMI

This year I was struggling to find a film I loved that I would consider a “guilty pleasure”, and originally I was leaning towards “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” as my title of choice. However I decided to go through my list of films I saw in 2019 one final time, and thankfully I did as the obvious choice suddenly hit me dead in the face. What better choice for my guilty pleasure of 2019, then a documentary on one of the greatest “guilty pleasure” movies of all time: Paul Verhoeven's “Showgirls”.

I am a massive fan of Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, and his unfiltered view of the world. When I saw that MIFF was showing a documentary about his critically trashed 1995 film “Showgirls”, I immediately pencilled it in to see. However, the closer I got to my actual screening of it, the more I convinced myself that I was about to walk into something of a dud. The point of “You Don't Nomi” is to look back at this bizarre film and decide once and for all if it really is a misunderstood masterpiece or a total piece of shit. As you may guess from my love of its director, I have always sat on the side of the fence that feels that “Showgirls” is definitely misunderstood, although I could never claim it to be any sort of masterpiece.

You Don't Nomi” turned out to be truly fantastic and so much fun! Taking turns to both trash and admire the film, one thing that I really loved was that it was never mean spirited. Even when it was tearing down the worth of “Showgirls”, it did so in a fun way. The documentary itself isn't the “talking heads” piece you may think it is, as we never actually see any of the participants discussing the film onscreen. Rather their opinions are done via voice-over narration while clips from the movie, or behind the scenes material taken during the shooting of “Showgirls” is played to emphasise their point. Like I said above, I have always liked “Showgirls” but damn, if “You Don't Nomi” didn't remind me of just how odd some of the film's moments and characterisations are. Elizabeth Berkley's performance in it is particularly bizarre. Speaking of Berkley, I have always felt so sorry for her in regards to this film, as it literally destroyed her career. However the greatest moment of “You Don't Nomi” comes towards the end where we are witness to an outdoor anniversary screening of “Showgirls”, with over one thousand people in attendance. The kicker is that Elizabeth Berkley, Nomi herself, is a special guest at the screening and is clearly very touched by the turnout exclaiming that she never got to experience this love towards the film at its time of relief, so this moment was twenty years in the making. She then turns to the audience and does that hand gesture famous from one of the dances in the film that anyone familiar with “Showgirls” would immediately recognise. The crowd goes berserk when she does it, and personally I loved watching her take the piss out of herself, as it then became very clear that she had made her peace with the film.

Surprisingly, “You Don't Nomi” also looks at the way “Showgirls” has affected a number of people in the positive, as they share their stories of what the film means to them, and we get to witness (some very funny) stage plays inspired by the 1995 film. Again, while most of these plays mock and make fun of “Showgirls”, they are done in such a loving manner towards the film. Another interesting thing in the documentary are the fans that see the film as the third part in an unofficial “camp” trilogy; “Valley of the Dolls” and “Mommie Dearest” being the other two films, as well as the way the people behind the making of “Showgirls” changed their narrative on what they were trying to achieve with the film before it was seen by an audience compared to after it had been released.

I cannot stress enough just how much fun this documentary is, and I feel extremely lucky to have watched it with an audience who embraced it just as much as I did. It really was one of my most fun times in a cinema all year. And if you are wondering what was the consensus in regards to whether “Showgirls” is a misunderstood masterpiece or a total piece of shit, “You Don't Nomi” makes the point that it doesn't matter, as its worth is up to each individual viewer, but what cannot be disputed is that after twenty five years since its release, “Showgirls” is a film that is still remembered and means a hell of a lot to a large number of people. If you are a fan of the film, I wholeheartedly recommend “You Don't Nomi”.

No comments:

Post a Comment