Directed by Jeffrey McHale
Featuring Peaches Christ, Haley Mlotek, Adam Nayman, David Schmader and April Kidwell
Running time: 1 hour and 32 minutes

by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy

You may have seen our article last week, where Nikk Nelson, The Old Sport and I discussed watching the Paul Verhoeven  film Showgirls. It was Nikk’s first time, Rosalie’s seen it a few and I’ve watched it MANY times. So we all have our own relationship with it. Funnily enough, that’s exactly what Jeffrey McHale’s documentary You Don’t Nomi is about.

For those of you that aren’t aware and didn’t read our article, the super quick synopsis of Showgirls is Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) a wild and free spirit that blows into Vegas and is looking  to become a big-time dancer at the Casinos. Her erratic behavior seems to get in her way at first, but she somehow always manages to fail upwards. It’s loaded with extreme sex throughout and a couple examples of horrific violence. My take is that much of this is shown to demonstrate the very American tendency to exploit people, especially women and their sexuality, for the profit of the already wealthy and the titillation of the “lesser” masses. This movie is a shitshow and a masterpiece, all in one.

You Don’t Nomi is mainly composed of a set of disembodied voices discussing their various takes on Showgirls’s over top of imagery, along with many of Verhoeven’s other films. It starts with (I believe) David Schmader* absolutely trashing the film. I’m not gonna lie, this is a bit of a bad start for me because, while I admit it’s a total shitshow, there’s quite a bit of Showgirls that I think is really well made. However, I think this is probably an appropriate place to start for general audiences as most of what they probably know about the film fits this mold. Schmader discusses the wild emoting of Nomi and lays the blame on Berkley’s acting and Verhoeven’s direction. He compares Nomi to an alien that has arrived on earth and is doing it’s best to approximate a human’s reactions.

Next we have Adam Nayman (author of It Doesn't Suck: Showgirls) who is a staunch defender of the film; his view is more closely aligned with mine and I won’t spend more time filling you in on that, as they are made clear elsewhere in this review.

Then, we hear from Haley Mlotek*, who provides more of a feminist critique of the film, and Verhoeven’s work as a whole. She points out his insistence on constantly demeaning the women in his films. A specific reference is made to Black Book and the scene in which the character Rachel is literally showered with shit. While I would counter that Verhoeven is showing how society treats women, and not glorifying it, she makes a strong case worth hearing out. For me, her arguments were much more substantive than Schmader’s. She’s actually analyzing the film in front of her, rather than giving a pop cultural reaction.

We then hear from Peaches Christ as he talks about Showgirls’ connection with queer and, more specifically, drag culture. He celebrates the camp aesthetic of the film as well as how that is tied to strong female characters, much like Mommy Dearest, Valley of the Dolls and Cobra Woman. Now, I’d never seen Cobra Woman before and he’d compared the performance by Maria Montez to Elizabeth Berkley, so I ordered it right away. While it was a wild ride in parts, it just didn’t live up to the hype that was discussed here. Still, it’s a gorgeous looking picture, if nothing else and I don’t feel like I wasted my money.

The documentary wraps up with April Kidwell discussing how Showgirls had given her a new voice after some traumatic emotional stress. It actually started with her performance in Bayside! The Musical as Jessie Spano in its recreation of the infamous caffeine pill episode of Saved by the Bell. With the freedom to absolutely lose her shit on stage in front of hundreds of people multiple times a week, she was able to break through some of the traumas that she had experienced. From there, she’s gone on to play Nomi in Showgirls! The Musical (which costars and is directed by Peaches Christ) and has taken a further step into the mania of that character and has been enjoying quite a bit of success as well.

While I enjoyed the story that it told, I didn’t particularly care for the way in which You Don’t Nomi told it. All of my statements above as to who said what during the documentary are subject to this one big problem I had. The talking heads were never shown. This, at times, leads to not being able to properly associate the words with the right person. It was all done in voiceover with clips from the films. And that is another issue I had, the clips from the films often didn’t represent what was being discussed. It felt more like they’d paid for access to use all of these clips (Robocop, Spetters, Starship Troopers, etc.) and wanted to make sure they got their money’s worth.

In the end, I appreciated the film and it gave The Old Sport and me some talking points after the film. We’ve talked about Showgirls and Verhoeven’s other film many times in the past, but now we had some new angles and perspectives we could go over as well.

So, while it may not be perfect (unlike Showgirls) You Don’t Nomi was still a fun ride with plenty of new viewpoints and well worth checking out. It will be available On Demand through most cable providers and Digital via FandangoNow as well as other big outlets on Tuesday, June 9th.