Showgirls (1995) Review: Why Paul Verhoeven's Vegas Epic Deserves Cult Reevaluation

Few movies have been buried as thoroughly as Showgirls. Released in 1995 to near-universal critical scorn, Paul Verhoeven's Vegas satire swept the Razzies, tanked at the box office, and became shorthand for "so bad it's good." Three decades later, the Rotten Tomatoes numbers — 24% from critics, 38% from audiences — still reflect that consensus.

But on Episode 66 of the Slept-On Cinema podcast, co-hosts Stan Steamer and GrobeStreet (joined by guest Adam Nayman, author of It Doesn't Suck: Showgirls) walked through the film scene by scene and came away genuinely converted. "I'm kind of blown away by how good this movie was," GrobeStreet said. "It's a lot better of a movie than it gets its credit for." Stan went further: "I think this is one of the best movies we've done."

The Premise

Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) hitchhikes into Las Vegas with nothing but a switchblade and a leather jacket, determined to become a dancer. She starts at the Cheetah, a seedy strip club, before clawing her way up to the Stardust's lavish revue, Goddess, where she clashes with reigning headliner Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon). What looks like a straightforward "backstage" melodrama on the surface is, underneath, Verhoeven running his usual satirical playbook on American capitalism, fame, and appetite.

Why Showgirls Deserves Reevaluation

The critical pile-on in 1995 treated Showgirls as a self-serious disaster. The read that's emerged since — amplified by critics like Nayman — is that Verhoeven knew exactly what he was making: a vicious Paul Verhoeven satire in the tradition of RoboCop and Starship Troopers, only this time aimed at Hollywood itself. "There's so many layers to it that I didn't even like," Stan said. "I still feel like I'm just scratching the surface while we watch it so many times." Viewed through that lens, the camp isn't a bug. It's the whole operation.

The BOLO

BOLO — Be On the Lookout — is the podcast's pre-watch list of visual and thematic beats to track. For Showgirls, both hosts loaded up:

  • Stan Steamer: a switchblade, fringe, meaningful names, mirrors, chips, the wigmaster from Seinfeld (Patrick Bristow), absolutely insane driving while not wearing a seat belt, marbles, vomit, ice cubes, a ring pop, and symbolic burgers.
  • GrobeStreet: an amazing leather jacket that only can come out of the '90s, mouth-open gum chewing, changing the radio station in a unique way (especially if it's Garth Brooks), a crazy way to meet a new friend, making a mess, making waves, sweating, lots of shades of brown lipstick, passing the buck on too much thrusting, people who are clearly from Texas, the double birds, emotional zipping, and a gross knuckle-sandwich threat.

If you've ever tried watching Showgirls straight and found your attention drifting, run it back with these lists next to you. Every item lands.

The Sleeper Pick

Beyond Berkley's bruising lead turn, the sleeper MVP is Gina Gershon as Cristal Connors. Gershon plays her as a half-amused predator — half mentor, half enemy — and the character's detached sense of irony is arguably the film's emotional thesis delivered in a single performance.

The Draft Pick

Each episode, the hosts draft one favorite element from the movie.

  • Stan Steamer took Elizabeth Berkley's performance and the pool scene — which he insisted on categorizing as a dance sequence: "It's 100% a dance scene. And it's important that parallel between the two. You can tell this is a transactional engagement... this kind of out-there extreme dance."
  • GrobeStreet drafted '90s dance clubs and Nomi's aggressive solo dancing at the Cheetah: "I'm just going to take '90s clubs every time in these movies... there's always like cages of people dancing."
  • Guest Adam Nayman took Katie Tippel, Verhoeven's 1975 Dutch film, to underline the director's long track record.

One Change to Blockbuster

What single change could have tipped Showgirls from "notorious flop" into "breakout hit"? Both hosts landed on the same answer: remove the late-film assault of Molly. "I think you take the rape scene out," Stan said. "The scene is so violent and vicious. But if that's not in there, you probably have some people that are feeling better about themselves after this movie. Tilts toward blockbuster, but a much worse film." GrobeStreet agreed — cutting it wouldn't make Showgirls a better piece of art, but it would have radically opened up its audience.

Production Trivia

  • Showgirls won seven Razzies in 1995, and Paul Verhoeven actually showed up to accept "Worst Director" in person — a bit of self-aware theater entirely consistent with the film itself.
  • The massive success of Basic Instinct two years earlier (roughly $400M worldwide) gave Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas the blank check they needed to get Showgirls greenlit as an NC-17 studio release.
  • In interviews, Verhoeven has said he thought he was essentially remaking All About Eve.
  • The soundtrack features the first public airing of David Bowie's "I'm Afraid of Americans."

The Bumper Sticker Line

Starting with Episode 43, every Slept-On Cinema breakdown ends with a line from the film that would work as a bumper sticker out of context. For Showgirls:

  • Stan Steamer: "My lawyers got me a real nice settlement."
  • Guest Adam Nayman: "It must be weird not having anyone come on you."

The Spin-Off Idea

Each host pitches a spin-off the studio left on the table:

  • Stan Steamer wants Goddess itself — the full in-universe stage show, shot as a DVD extra. "The sets, you have volcanoes, you have everything is so thought through and so extravagant."
  • GrobeStreet pitches Showgirls 2: Polly, a horror-thriller sequel built around Molly's fate: "At the end of the movie, obviously she loses it... and she becomes me, and they're off to LA. But it's Jeff, the same dude who 342 miles away picked her up and brought her to Vegas. This can't be a coincidence."

The Drink Pairing

The pairing is as important as the pick:

  • Stan Steamer: "A giant fountain Coke... or you're just getting like a fridge full of Crystal."
  • GrobeStreet: "The Belvedere gimlet, but just not at Twin River Casino." His broader rule: any drink you ordered when you were younger trying to pretend to be richer or more affluent — "trying to be something it's not, and getting it a little wrong."

Why Showgirls Still Works

Thirty years on, Showgirls plays less like a failed drama and more like what it probably was from day one: Verhoeven's most scorched-earth satire of American ambition, disguised as the exact kind of glossy NC-17 spectacle he was lampooning. Berkley's performance is locked-in, not lost. The production design is staggering. The script rewards rewatches in a way that almost no "properly reviewed" movie of 1995 does.

It's a movie that got punished in its moment for being too much — too loud, too vulgar, too sincere in its insincerity. Three decades later, "too much" is exactly what makes it watchable again.

Listen to the Full Episode

Stan Steamer and GrobeStreet unpack Showgirls in full on Episode 66 of the Slept-On Cinema podcast, joined by It Doesn't Suck: Showgirls author Adam Nayman. Both hosts close the episode by naming it one of the best films they've covered.

Listen now:
🎧 Spotify
🎙️ Apple Podcasts

Slept-On Cinema celebrates films with a Rotten Tomatoes critic score and audience score at or below 50% — not to mock them, but to find what's worth rescuing. New episodes weekly.

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