Siskel Film Center: Showgirls

Saturday, June 7, 8:30 p.m. & Friday, June 20, 8:30 p.m. | At first, this NC-17 tale about stripper Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley), who dreams of becoming a top showgirl, was roundly rejected, with USA Today calling the film “as hoary as it is whore-y.” But, as Sontag notes, “What was banal can, with the passage of time, become fantastic,” and SHOWGIRLS has now been embraced for being “perfectly bad,” and entirely camp. The film’s solemnity set against gaudy Las Vegas, Berkley’s extreme performance, the backstage melodrama of the Stardust Resort and Casino has enshrined SHOWGIRLS as camp canon. Content consideration: contains a scene of sexual assault.