Showgirls (1995)

Directed by Paul Verhoeven

There has been so much already said about this movie, it's one of these movies that is surrounded by so much extra discussion and controversy, it's difficult to touch on it all.  Something of a minor cultural phenomenon when released for many reasons it has maintained a legacy of ignominy.  As a person who was there when it came out I can maybe share a little of the response to it at the time.  Controversy baiting from the start, it grabbed attention for two things at the time of it's release: first, it had an almost unheard of NC-17 rating, and second, it starred Elizabeth Berkley who at this time was known for the tween to teen sit-com Saved By The Bell.  It got fairly bad reviews but was mostly known as just being this borderline illicit film for years afterward.

A couple things have happened since, the Rocky Horror crowd have re-framed it as a camp comedy ripe for derision which essentially gave it what you might call, well, fans.  This gave some momentum for cult film fans to take a second look at it.  Verhoeven is already well regarded amongst this group and so people have begun to reassess it.  It can either be seen as his one great fluke or a misunderstood masterpiece.

So is it actually as bad as it's come to be known?  Did Verhoeven and writer Esterhaus intentionally set out to make a trashy camp masterpiece?  Or were they suffering from blood-loss to the head while making a film about exotic dancers?  Probably a bit of both honestly.  They were definitely going for a sort of high production value sex-romp dram-edy.  There are moments of obviously intended comedy that are actually quite funny.  But then there are many elements and scenes that are simply inexplicably awful or just leave you scratching your head.  It creates this hilarious mixed-bag of what-the-hell-were-they-thinking.  You have to view it as an ultimately flawed but fascinating film.