This is the fourth of a series of reviews of movies showing at the New Haven Documentary Film Festival, or NHDocs, which runs May 30 through June 9 at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale, the main branch of the New Haven Free Public Library, Cafe Nine, and the State House. Click here for a full schedule of screenings.
The complicated past and renewed presence of the 1995 film Showgirls is the focus of You Don’t Nomi, Jeffrey McHale’s intriguing documentary that looks at the drama — initially panned and widely regarded as a failure — from a variety of angles and perspectives that dissect it as well as resurrect it.
News clips and commentary explore the making of the film and its main players, including director Paul Verhoeven, writer Joe Eszterhas, and star Elizabeth Berkley. We then follow the film’s eventual release and critical failures. Then the documentary evolves into an examination of the film’s rebirth as something to be celebrated and reinterpreted through, among other things, a musical stage interpretation and a poetry book.
Much attention is given to its main character, Nomi — played by Berkley — who over the years has become a hero of sorts as well as a symbol of free expression of self.
As additional symbolism is pointed out and discussed, You Don’t Nomi makes the case that Showgirls is a movie that requires more viewings through different lenses to garner a new respect for it. In the end, it is left up to the viewer to decide if the film, or any piece of art, can be held to its initial interpretations, or if over time it can become what it needs to be for anyone who views it.
You Don’t Nomi screens on June 3 at 9:30 p.m. in Screening Room 208, Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.
