Pamela Anderson's Overlooked 2024 Drama Is A Streaming Hit On Hulu

In 2025, Hulu is making a decent case for being one of the best streaming services going. Sure, it started the year by showcasing a Sandra Bullock horror film with a lamentable 7% Rotten Tomatoes score, but otherwise the service's charts have been a darn sight better than most others. Chloe Fineman's critically acclaimed comedy "Summer of 69" rocked the Hulu charts in May 2025, while Timothee Chalamet's Oscar-nominated Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown" similarly dominated the service back in March. We've also seen Oscar-winner "Anora" top the Hulu charts, all of which has made for a decent year for the Disney-owned streamer.

Now, Hulu is shining some light on an overlooked 2024 drama that's well worth a watch — mainly because it contains what might be Pamela Anderson's best ever performance. "The Last Showgirl" was directed by Gia Coppola and stars Anderson as Shelly Gardner, the titular Las Vegas dancer who faces uncertainty after she learns that the revue in which she's starred for three decades is set to close. The script comes from Kate Gersten, who adapted her own play, "Body of Work," and the movie co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Billie Lourd, and Dave Bautista.

After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024, "The Last Showgirl" got a limited theatrical release in the United States before expanding to a wider release a month later. But despite a positive critical response and Anderson's Golden Globe and SAG nominations, the movie failed to make much of an impact on the general public. Now, however, Hulu has stepped in to try to fix that, and it seems audiences appreciate the effort.

"The Last Showgirl" was made for less than $2 million and shot in just 18 days. It went on to make almost $7 million at the box office, so simply based on the math it was a commercial success, even if it wasn't a huge hit. The film also received positive reviews, with critics particularly praising Pamela Anderson's performance, capping off a year in which the actor had made somewhat of a comeback while trying to reclaim the narrative surrounding her career.

Still, "The Last Showgirl" wasn't exactly a sensation, which, considering Anderson's performance, is a bit of a shame. Thankfully, Hulu viewers are now streaming the movie in earnest. "The Last Showgirl" hit the streamer on May 23, 2025, and, according to streaming viewership tracker FlixPatrol, made an immediate impact. On May 24, viewers sent the film to the number six spot on the most-watched movie chart and things just got better from there. On May 25, the film hit number one on Hulu and remained there until May 28, when it dropped to second place.

But much like Anderson's resilient showgirl, the film stuck around, falling to number three on May 29 before rising to take the top spot again the following day, where it sits at the time of writing. As per FlixPatrol, that's enough to land the movie in the number eight spot on the overall Hulu chart, which takes into account both movies and TV shows. Granted, Hulu doesn't have the 301 million subscribers of Netflix, which arguably won the streaming wars some time ago. But it does boast a reported solid 54 million monthly users, which means "The Last Showgirl" is getting some decent exposure.

"The Last Showgirl" has a very respectable 83% score on Rotten Tomatoes, most of which looks to be down to Pamela Anderson's performance in the lead role. In general, the positive reviews weren't exactly effusive in their praise. Reviewers who, according to RT, gave the film a "Fresh" review were underwhelmed with large parts of the movie, with Sandra Hall of the Sydney Morning Herald writing, "After we get the picture, the script doesn't have anywhere much to go." Deborah Ross of The Spectator, on the other hand, was disappointed that "we're never allowed to sit with any of the characters, which makes them feel underexplored" but praised Anderson as "transfixing." Meanwhile, the Arizona Republic's Dina Kaur thought "The Last Showgirl" was "worth watching for its final scene alone" even while she noted that "a lack of character and relationship-building leads to the film being as deep as a kiddie pool." Still, all of these reviews are listed as positive on RT, and there are plenty more like it.

That said, several reviewers were more kind to the film as a whole, with Wendy Ide of the Observer (UK) writing, "There's a bruising cumulative power to this melancholy little paean to an ending era." Meanwhile the praise for Anderson's performance was pretty much unanimous, and she's clearly the main reason to give this movie a watch. Critics were also impressed with Jamie Lee Curtis and Dave Bautista, whom Miriam Balanescu of Empire Magazine referred to as "surprisingly tender."

Just days after Sarah Paulson's pulse-pounding horror thriller "Run" made waves on the Hulu chart, then, the service is once again offering some solid viewing options, strengthening the case for it being one of the best streaming services going.