Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

You Don't Nomi Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 1, 2020

Why are flops often more interesting to discuss than successes? In the world of Broadway, there are two really great reads about groups of shows that either never quite achieved hit status or were indeed outright debacles, William Goldman’s The Season and Ken Mandelbaum’s Not Since Carrie, and in the film world, there are a number of great tomes which at least tangentially address notable bombs like Doctor Dolittle and Heaven's Gate. While I frankly can’t think of any major documentaries about Broadway flops, there have been a number of documentaries about various films with troubled reputations, including efforts like Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau. Some might include Francis Ford Coppola’s Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (included in Apocalypse Now) in that list, though of course the focal film wasn’t really a flop, even if its production caused untold emotional issues for Coppola. Into this small but captivating arena comes You Don't Nomi, an appealing if perhaps occasionally shallow exploration of the history of Paul Verhoeven's once derided and now at least at times loved (or at least tolerated) Showgirls (note that the link points to an out of print edition which is now pretty pricey, since that edition has a review, though there is also this edition, which also seems to be out of print but which is at least not quite as pricey).

While obviously intentionally told the way it is, You Don’t Nomi tends to focus on reactions to the film rather than the film itself, though the documentary is stuffed to the gills with clips from Showgirls as well as a number of other Verhoeven efforts. One way or the other, though, the documentary is definitely a study in what might be termed “montage theory”, or at least “adept editing”, as it segues effortlessly (and often pretty hilariously) between various films. Director and editor Jeffrey McHale does a very smart job of juxtaposing clips, sometimes showing a bunch of little snippets from Verhoeven films which offer at least some of the same content, but just as often going to “meta” references, as in a really funny comparison of one of Elizabeth Berkley’s dance routines in Showgirls with a similarly hyperbolic moment of terpsichorean madness by Maria Montez in Cobra Woman. Also interesting, if perhaps less easy to watch, are some of McHale's comparisons between various Verhoeven films, as in a look at how Verhoeven evidently likes to see women vomit in movies.

An assortment of critics or those who have built at least part of their professional careers around various elements of Showgirls is featured in You Don't Nomi courtesy of a bunch of voiceover material, but I personally would have appreciated more "formal" introductions to some of these folks. The viewer is kind of plopped down into various aspects, including "curated" screenings by David Schmader, as well as a parody musical version which is utilized quite a bit, especially in the closing half hour or so of the documentary. McHale divides the documentary into little quasi- sections, supposedly based on the transformation of responses to the film, but in a way there's really not a whale of a lot of rhyme and/or reason to the structure here, as things are just kind of randomly handled.

McHale does a more than creditable job in assembling the clips and utilizing the various critics' (and others') reactions to the film, but I really would have loved a bit more time with some of the people who actually either made it or were in it. There are some brief archival interviews (some relatively recent) with the likes of Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, but none of them are very detailed or insightful (and in fact Verhoeven is just kind of "jokey" in some of them). There's absolutely no content whatsoever regarding any of the actors, other than (again archival) video of Elizabeth Berkley appearing on various talk shows and the like, as well as a brief, and admittedly charming, latter day appearance she gave at a screening for the film. But considering what an outright stinker Showgirls was at least initially perceived to have been, it might have given You Don't Nomi a bit more emotional heft to have heard from some of the participants about how the film affected them personally and professionally. There seems to be an attempt of sorts to inject some emotional response courtesy of a disturbing anecdote shared by one participant about a real life sexual attack she suffered (there's a rape scene in Showgirls, for those unaware), but since the person relaying it is only very tangentially connected to the film, it almost seems extraneous.

That said, there's some undeniably smart analysis offered here, not just in terms of this film in particular, but also in terms of a certain zeitgeist in films during the mid-nineties, when sex was often portrayed as "dangerous", as well as in how Showgirls has joined the ranks of any number of other so-called "cult" items. The wide variety of film clips utilized provide such an array that, while arguably just a bit ADHD seeming at times, there's always something to look at.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf didn't like You Don't Nomi quite as much as I did. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

You Don't Nomi Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

You Don't Nomi is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of RLJE Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in a variety of aspect ratios, though as can be seen in several screenshots accompanying this review, with 1.78:1 offering the fullest use of a 16:9 display. This is another documentary that has been cobbled together from any number of different sources, and so a heterogeneous appearance was probably unavoidable. The many clips from Showgirls (in 2.40:1) look nicely sharp and well detailed, and they offer at times an almost lurid palette. There's really no on screen interview material at all, and so the rest of this documentary is culled from a huge glut of other films, including some Verhoeven outings, but also a bunch of other stuff ranging from the sublime (All About Eve ) to the ridiculous (Plan 9 from Outer Space). The bulk of the film clips actually look at least decent, and often quite good, but the same cannot be said of some of the archival video, including some pretty ragged looking sequences from Berkley's old Saved by the Bell series.

You Don't Nomi Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

You Don't Nomi features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that probably attains its most noticeable surround activity in the musical sequences from Showgirls it features. Otherwise, this is a documentary driven by voiceover, and even when there are film snippets playing the background, whatever focal voice is speaking at the moment is mixed forward (as it should be), meaning immersive capabilities of the track definitely ebb and flow. Fidelity is fine throughout, though, and even some of the archival elements sound surprisingly spry.

You Don't Nomi Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements offered on this Blu-ray disc.

You Don't Nomi Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You Don't Nomi is kind of ironically a reassessment of a reassessment of a reassessment of Showgirls, and as such any "conclusions" it comes to may be questionable, but it's still an invigorating documentary that covers a huge amount of material with a fair amount of efficiency. Technical merits are generally solid given an understanding that there's a huge variety of source material on display here, and You Don't Nomi comes Recommended.