You Don't Nomi: NZIFF Review

You Don't Nomi: NZIFF Review

While it scores points for its pun in the title, You Don't Nomi loses out on the documentary stakes, pulling together something that lacks the pull and draw of the trashfire piece it's examining.

That piece is Paul Verhoeven's critically dividing, the stultifyingly unsexy 1995 movie Showgirls.

Tackling the critical mauling the film got on its initial release back in the 90s, director Jeffrey McHale takes a look at what happened to the film, why it got another life, and why it's worth considering again.

But what emerges from You Don't Nomi is that it's a doco with not too much to say for those who already know the story of Showgirls, and its rise from the ashes. Using context of the time, and positing that Verhoeven's derided when he steps away from the violence and machismo of his other movies, McHale makes the case, once again, that this movie is misunderstood.

Voiceovers provide interviews, offer insights and generally pontificate on what went wrong, why those who made it go wrong are wrong and why it deserves to live again. Archive footage of Verhoeven amid filming makes it clear the blame lies at his feet, but where You Don't Nomi is more successful is in examining how the film was probably released at the wrong time.

Equally more enticing, and feeling absent for all throughout is Showgirls' original star, Nomi Malone aka Elizabeth Berkley. The doco offers little from her, which is a shame given the movie destroyed her, until near the end, and in the briefest of moments shows how she was unfairly vilified for the film's floppage, which lies solely at someone else's feet.

You Don't Nomi delivers clips in a smart and clever way, reframing them within other Verhoeven fare, but it's the sole directorial flair the documentary offers - if the focus had been tighter, or we'd have followed Berkley more both during, after and now it could have offered a fascinating insight into what makes a phenomenon, a cult failure and subsequent rise from the ashes.

Instead, what emerges from You Don't Nomi is a tediously flaccid doco that emerges with very little to say - and certainly not enough to engage an audience for its 90 minute run time.