Showgirls is an undeniable camp classic. The 1995 erotic drama directed by Paul Verhoeven had people talking for its explicit scenes, NC-17 rating, and over-the-top acting from leading lady Elizabeth Berkley. The movie was critically panned, but it has since gained a cult following for being so wildly outrageous. That, my friends, is what brings us here today. In fact, everyone was so busy talking about Ms. Berkley's breasts that they seemed to overlook Kyle MacLachlan's nudity in the film. He actually delivers quite a lot. That gives us the perfect excuse to really dive into THE cult classic of the 90s: Showgirls.
Showgirls was incredibly hyped up and it technically had too big of a budget for us to really consider it a B-movie, but its reception and reputation is pretty on-par with B-movies so that's why we're lumping it into this category. The movie was so sexually explicit with tons of female nudity that it earned an NC-17 rating and it became the first movie with that rating to be given a nationwide theatrical release in major movie theaters. This film was ready to get America nice and horny!
The plot follows a beautiful drifter named Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) who hitchhikes to Las Vegas in the hopes of becoming a showgirl on the Vegas strip. Her driver robs her, but she winds up meeting a costume designer who takes her in and becomes her roommate. Nomi dances at a topless bar, but she still has her showgirl dreams which she tells to a showgirl she meets. The showgirl gets her an audition for a chorus line at a place called Goddess. The director humiliates her by asking her to rub ice on her nipples to make them harder. Nomi iconically leaves the audition with dramatic flair! She wants revenge on the girl who set up this horrible audition, so she winds up seducing her boyfriend Zack - played by Kyle MacLachlan - and getting a part as the girl's understudy. Crazy coincidence, huh? That ploy doesn't go exactly how she wanted it to and the girl taunts her about being in her shadow. So, um, Nomi does the totally rational thing of pushing that girl down the stairs (WHAT?!) to get her role, but then her roommate gets badly beaten up by a musician and Nomi decides to take the law into her own hands...by finding the musician and beating him up. Finally, the girl she pushed down the stairs forgives her because she actually pulled a similar stunt to secure her role in Vegas years ago. LOL! Amiright, ladies?! The two kiss which, I guess, means that everything is A-okay. Finally, Nomi decides to leave Las Vegas - GOOD IDEA IT SEEMS VERY BAD FOR YOU - and hitchhikes a ride to Los Angeles (BAD IDEA PLEASE TAKE A BUS). The driver is the same driver that robbed her when this journey began, so he robs him. ROLL CREDITS THE END.
So now that you know all of that, you can see why this movie would wind up being such a legendary disaster. That plot is like three soap opera season arcs at once. It's important to know that since Nomi seduces Kyle's character in order to get revenge on that girl whom she ultimately pushes down the stairs, that means that we get to see Kyle naked.
Showgirls was reviewed poorly for Elizabeth's bad acting as well as the outrageous sex scenes, but it made a lot of money on the home release market. The movie incidentally did so well after the fact that it turned a profit and became one of MGM's top bestsellers. The actors didn't think this movie would flop which is why they really gave it their all. Kyle has even said that he thought Showgirls would be "hard-hitting". He has since told multiple interview outlets that he looks back on the film very fondly even though he did no press for the film after he viewed it for the first time. He told GQ: “I watched the whole thing and I said, ‘I don’t know what to say about this movie. I don’t think I can talk about this movie.” He is over his embarrassment of the film now, but we think he should be proud of his work in Showgirls. He looks the best he's ever looked in this pool scene:
