PULP FICTION

I have this friend who, as a child, used to feign sleep until midnight, sneak out of bed, and watch Showgirls whenever TV Guide listed it as a late-night feature on a seedy cable channel. Though Gina Gershon was divine as the evil, aging ingénue Cristal Connors, Elizabeth Berkley really gave her all to the role of Nomi Malone, a young, hard-working dancer with dreams of stardom—providing pubescent Saved by the Bell fans too young to see Paul Verhoeven’s cinematic masterpiece in theaters with the real reason to stay up late. And now that we’re—ahem, they’re—old enough for NC-17 films, the IFC Center is screening Showgirls as part of a retrospective of Verhoeven’s pulpy American oeuvre. But, just for old time’s sake, the film is only on at midnight.

Jan. 16-17, midnight, 2010