braden’s review published on Letterboxd:
“It doesn’t suck”
Reviled as one of the worst films ever made upon its 1995 release, Paul Verhoeven’s relentlessly provocative Showgirls is so shamelessly egregious that it goes beyond being ‘so bad it’s good’ to the point where its sincerely amazing - not in an ironic way, but as a boldly excessive, deliberately trashy, stylised satire. The level of overindulgence in every aspect - from the overblown, cliched performances to the absurd depiction of sex* - creates an indefinable ‘surrealism’ that’s only made more puzzling by the constant tonal shifts; swinging wildly between cheesy melodrama to inexplicable comedy, keeping it so baffling that you quickly learn to roll with its mercilessly tasteless style. The outrageous plot and bewildering, inaccessible sensibility have kept it as one of the most divisive and controversial movies ever, and while it’s many critics may be justified in condemning it, I cant help but love it’s unyielding insistence on its own ridiculousness; making it such a genuinely entertaining, explosive movie in its own confused way.
