Are you ready for this?
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
Of course that’s Charles Dickens’ historical novel A Tale of Two Cities. Thing is even though that book came out in 1859 that could have easily passed as a snooty review of the 1995 movie Showgirls. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” indeed.
Showgirls followed the same notorious path as Office Space and Fight Club. Box Office bombs with recognizable talent only to suddenly find new life through cable and ironic enjoyment? (I don’t understand hate watching either.)
You know we used to have things called guilty pleasures. We possessed far more nuance in how we categorized the pop culture we consumed. Lately it’s become ALL OR NOTHING like a tragic identity war and sometimes a movie/comic is just meh. It’s not bad it’s just meh.
Yet there’s a lot of peer pressure to be right; otherwise you won’t be socially accepted. So as odd as it is Showgirls’ flop to cult status journey is a commentary on our taste. That I could drop Charles Dickens to comment about Showgirls is clearly evidence of that. (Plus it works doesn’t it?)
As if that wasn’t enough this Trailer Alert made me lol!! It’s a Showgirls documentary.
You Don’t Nomi (great title!) is available on Demand/Digital on June 9.
Here I’ll “show” you the trailer…hah!
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
