‘Showgirls’ at 31: The Camp Classic’s Second Act in New York’s Movie Houses

On this gray Monday in late September, the line outside IFC Center snakes down Sixth Avenue—a telltale sign that, yes, ‘Showgirls’ is back on the big screen. Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 fever dream, once a byword for cinematic disaster, is enjoying a raucous revival across New York, where downtown cinephiles and Gen Z TikTokers alike are clamoring for midnight screenings.

Elizabeth Berkley’s star turn as Nomi Malone, with all its high-kick bravado and raw vulnerability, looks less like a punchline three decades on and more like a daring performance ahead of its time. At Nitehawk Cinema last Friday, drag queen hosts led the crowd in a raucous call-and-response—”Versace!”—before the opening credits even rolled. When Gina Gershon’s Cristal Connors made her entrance, the audience roared in unison, their affection for the film as performative as the movie itself.

Uptown at Film at Lincoln Center, a weekend panel dissected ‘Showgirls’ with a seriousness that would have seemed unthinkable in its opening week. “It’s high camp and high art,” declared critic Malik Johnson, referencing Susan Sontag before pivoting to how the movie’s excess feels, in his words, “right at home in a city that never stops performing.”

The city’s embrace of ‘Showgirls’ this fall is more than nostalgia—it’s a testament to New York’s unique ability to find community in the misunderstood and the maligned. As autumn evenings grow brisk and the election cycle heats up, a raucous movie night offers a communal sigh, a shared wink at the absurd. ‘Showgirls’ is still shocking, still divisive, and—on a Monday night in Manhattan, utterly irresistible.