The Screen Critic: Pamela Anderson scores as a has-been dancer, a powerful drama from Brazil, and another fun horror film

Though she is forever destined to be known for her slow-motion running along the beaches of Baywatch, Pamela Anderson puts in a sterling central performance as a has-been Las Vegas dancer in The Last Showgirl.

As Shelly Gardner, Anderson excels as the aged star of an old-style show that, after a 38-year run, is finally closing.

Having made no contingency plans, Shelly becomes frantic over her legacy’s impending doom and that her attempts to bond with her estranged daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd) are floundering.

Attempts to stay in the game prove tough, exposing how little she has thought about life beyond the show, putting her in an increasingly dire situation.

With Jamie Lee Curtis putting in strong support as her best friend who works as an ancient cocktail waitress, Anderson creates a moving portrait of a desperate woman whose lifetime of poor choices have caught up with her.

By the way, the bio-doc Pamela: A Love Story is a great profile about Anderson’s rocky life and career. Catch it on Netflix.

Up for a swag of Oscars including Best Film, Best International Film and – most deservedly – Best Actress, I’m Still Here is an excellent period drama about the political turmoil in Brazil that saw thousands of people “disappear” under a dictatorship that ran from 1964 to 1985.

Living a happy suburban life with her large family by the Rio beach in 1970, Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres) has her life turned upside down when her loving, hard-working husband Rubens (Selton Mello) is suddenly taken in for questioning.

Soon Eunice and her oldest daughter are hauled in too, her inquiries about the whereabouts and welfare of her husband being met with a series of non-answers before they are sent back home after a week of harrowing interrogation.

Potently directed by veteran Walter Salles (Central Station; The Motorcycle Diaries), the film presents an absorbing chronicle of the psychological torture endured by Eunice and her family, the extraordinary, subdued performance by Torres forming the heart and soul of this fact-based story of political corruption and personal courage.

In The Monkey, identical twin brothers Hal and Bill discover a toy simian with a drum kit and a scary grin that – this being based on a Stephen King short story – is, of course, possessed by an evil spirit.

Each time the monkey bangs its drum some poor sod dies a horrible, gruesome death that typically involves buckets of gore, though this side effect is played largely for laughs, not scares. Fans of comedy horror will get a buzz from this fun time killer.

Movies about prison are usually grim affairs, and the Australian film Inside honours that tradition.

Guy Pearce turns in an unsettling performance as a gruff long-term prisoner who coaches a younger inmate about how best to dispatch a fellow resident, infamously known as the country’s most reviled criminal.

There’s no denying the film is a heavy affair, but if you’re up for a pungent drama about the realities of prison – including how frightening the prospect of freedom can be – it’s a worthy effort with a raft of very convincing, if unpleasant characters.

Given how rare they are, it’s also good to see a quality Australian film so early in the year. Here’s hoping for more.

Set in the early 1980s and based on a true story, The Order follows an investigation by a disaffected FBI agent (Jude Law, also a producer) into a group of neo-Nazis living in a remote rural town in Idaho.

Directed by Australian Justin Kurzel (Snowtown; Nitram) and featuring an impressive turn by Nicholas Hoult as the young White Power leader, the film is notable for detailing why otherwise normal people are attracted to such warped and dangerous beliefs.

As fate would have it, the film regrettably arrives at a tumultuous time when polarised public discourse and the rise of extreme racial politics make the events depicted in the 40-year old story more topical than anyone would have otherwise wished them to be.

It’s very strong viewing. Catch it on Prime.

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