Streaming: The Last Showgirl and the best Las Vegas films

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Gia Coppola’s drama starring Pamela Anderson peers behind the glamour of ‘the fun capital of the world’, but sin city has long seduced film-makers from Scorsese and Soderbergh to Sean Baker and Baz Luhrmann (There’s a reason why film-makers are routinely drawn to the glaring, garish lights of Las Vegas: in its spangliest strips, it feels more movie set than city, the kind of place it’s hard to imagine people living everyday lives 24/7. Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl – streaming on Mubi from 18 April – is quite rare in its focus on one such person: Shelly, a dancer in a long-running revue on the Vegas strip, now pushing 60 and at a crossroads when said revue announces its imminent closure. Short and light on plot, it’s a character study built on a poignant night-and-day contrast, as Shelly literally performs a glitzy Vegas dream that all looks a bit shabby by daylight in her modest bungalow in the desert suburbs. Pamela Anderson affectingly brings her own career baggage to the role o...
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Stars lead emotional tributes to Quincy Jones at Oscars Governors awards

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Rashida Jones read the speech her father had drafted ahead of his honorary Oscar, while Richard Curtis called on the industry to ‘create a mechanism that helps change things’

Quincy Jones died too soon to accept an honorary Oscar at the Governors awards on Sunday night – so the ceremony in Los Angeles became a moving celebration of the life of a music legend.

Jones, who died on 3 November aged 91, was one of five Hollywood luminaries due to be honoured at the 15th Governors awards. In his absence, his daughter Rashida Jones read the speech he had drafted, alongside a spirited performance by Jennifer Hudson.

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