Philadelphia Film Society

See something you'll never forget

YOU DON’T NOMI + SHOWGIRLS

YOU DON’T NOMI (7:30 PM)
JEFFREY MCHALE | USA | 2019 | 94 MIN | NR

NOTICE: The double feature presentation of YOU DON’T NOMI and SHOWGIRLS has moved to the PFS Roxy Theater located at 2023 Sansom Street. 

For a movie that landed with a resounding thud in theaters nearly 25 years ago and received a then-record 13 Razzie nominations, SHOWGIRLS has had a surprisingly long and complicated life. Once dismissed as a failure, Paul Verhoeven’s outrageous showbiz melodrama is now both a certified camp classic and an unlikely favorite among many serious-minded cinephiles. Jeffrey McHale’s lovingly crafted documentary combines clips from the film with insights from fans and critics from all points on the spectrum of Showgirls fandom. Equal parts E! True Hollywood Story and PhD thesis, it offers revealing insight into making of the film, fascinating new ways to interpret it within Verhoeven’s oeuvre, and an array of interpretations of the film’s potential meanings (whether intentional or unintentional). YOU DON’T NOMI is clear catnip for Showgirls fans, but it should be of equal interest to non-acolytes. It’s a deliriously free-wheeling meditation on a garish bauble of a film that’s as difficult to know as Nomi Malone herself.

SHOWGIRLS (9:30 PM)
PAUL VERHOEVEN | USA | 1995 | 131 MIN | NC-17

After arriving in Sin City by way of ‘different places,’ Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) finds herself dancing at Cheetah’s Topless Club, far from the bright lights of the Vegas Strip. With the help of her roommate Molly (Gina Ravera), Nomi gets backstage at the Stardust Casino’s newest production, “Goddess,” and catches the eye of the show’s malicious leading lady, Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon). Nomi also grabs the attention of the Stardust’s Entertainment Director (and Cristal’s boyfriend) Zack Carey (Kyle MacLachlan), and lands an audition to join the chorus of “Goddess.” But as she claws her way up the ladder from eating Doggy Chow to wearing Versayce, Nomi must consider whether she’s simply trading one form of personal degradation for another. A notorious critical and box office bomb at the time of its release, SHOWGIRLS is now a bona-fide cult classic with an army of loyal fans. In Nomi’s immortal words: “It doesn’t suck.”

Cast: Elizabeth Berkley, Gina Gershon, Kyle MacLachlan, Glenn Plummer

Part of the Philadelphia Film Society’s AFTER HOURS series.