Showgirls

Where does one begin with Showgirls? It’s a high budget NC-17 film directed by the excellent Dutch director Paul Verhoeven; it’s also been dubbed one of the worst films ever made, sweeping the Razzies in the mid-1990s (incidentally, Verhoeven showed up in person to collect his multiple, shameful trophies) and performing dismally at the box office. Considering America is struggling with the duality of hyper-sexuality and Puritanical sexual repressiveness it’s no wonder Showgirls was a critical and financial failure – Showgirls features nudity for at least half of the film and touches upon sexually explicit material (primarily orgasms) frequently. Showgirls’ protagonist Nomi (Elizabeth Berkley from Saved by the Bell) is a headstrong, highly sexualized woman who’s dealing with the realization that an entertainer becomes nothing more than a prostitute (especially in Las Vegas); Berkley is also a terrible actress. However, it’s her awful performance that really brings this film together. In essence, her overblown awfulness sells, turning Showgirls from an erotic movie into the best comedy of the 1990s.