Stripshow (1996) User Reviews

A non-typical nudie feature

[denny-16 · 5/10 · 20 August 2000]

This low-budget picture tries to be serious within the confines of an erotic soft-core feature. Tane McClure is a discontent stripper who in abundant voice-over ruminates on her inner turmoil. She has a love-hate relationship with an aging stud known only as Cowboy, and is also befriending a confused younger girl. Most of a film is shot at what looks like an abandoned motel, the desolate look matching the inner life of the characters. McClure initiates the girl into Sapphic love and the world of stripping but never finds happiness. Of course, the movie acknowledges it's intended audience and does offer plenty of scenes of the ladies in action at the Strip Club and between the sheets. For the pneumatic McClure, at least she given more to do than her usual decorative roles.

Stripshow

[jboothmillard · 3/10 · 11 March 2005]

I saw this soft-core porn-like movie once before when it was on late at night, I originally gave it a fairly high rating because one fairly memorable scene, but thank goodness I watched again to judge it properly. Basically stripper Raquel aka "Rock" (Tane McClure) has left the business and returned to her former lover, a cowboy named Cowboy (Steve Tietsort), at a hotel in the desert, hoping to patch things up. He is angry with her for leaving him, they now have a love-hate relationship, they do sleep together, Cowboy says he only wants her for sex. He mentions he is in debt, Raquel offers to pay the $10,000 he needs, without mentioning the millions of dollars she has in a suitcase. While Cowboy leaves Raquel at the hotel, she meets young Kara (Monique Parent), who is heading to Las Vegas to start a new job at Club Paradise. During their heated conversation, Kara realises Raquel has slept with women, and she is made aware that the club she will be working in is full of strippers. Cowboy returns, but has changed his mind about Raquel paying his debt, so she decides to show him the suitcase of $2,000,000. Cowboy insists on knowing how she got the money, after threatening to leave her. She eventually tells him that she "inherited" it from an 83-year-old high rolling customer who recently died. Raquel tells the truth, that she slept with the old man to earn the money. Cowboy drives away in anger, leaving Raquel distraught at the hotel. Feeling hopeless, Raquel wanders out into the desert, Kara eventually finds her sitting on the ground, they have another heated conversation. They talk about what has happened between her and Cowboy, and Kara's break up with her rock star boyfriend after his band died in a car crash that he survived. Kara and Raquel get lost trying to get back to the road, they find an old shack and a man inside who gives them food and allows them to rest there for the night. Raquel and Kara are unable to sleep due to the cold of the desert at night, the two of them get under the covers to get warm. They talk a little, Kara asks Raquel what it's like to be with a woman, they eventually kiss, and slowly undress and become intimate. The next morning, they question what happened between them, but they just try to forget about it, and eventually find their way back to the hotel. Raquel finds Cowboy waiting there, they talk about things, and have sex in the truck, they seem to reconcile. Raquel invites Kara to dinner, she eventually accepts, during which Raquel offers to give her a home with them in Texas. Kara says that she starts her new job the following day, Raquel decides she should teach Kara how to be a stripper. She asks Kara to undress and dance along to some music playing. Then Raquel gets forceful, paying her thousands of go fully nude, then offering to pay double to watch Kara masturbate. Finally, Raquel offers Kara a total of $70,000, if she will have sex with Cowboy. Raquel knows that she wants the money and that Cowboy finds her attractive. Both initially refuse, but they do have sex, and Raquel watches. Kara's boyfriend John y Wilson (Robert Arron) shows up wanting her back. Cowboy and Raquel watch from the window and have regrets what they have done to Kara. Cowboy realises that he has become what he hated Raquel for. Kara shows Johnny the thousands she made the night before, but Johnny realises she was paid to have sex and leaves in anger. Kara blames Raquel for the breakup, and later works her first shift in the club. She runs off stage after going topless, then fails to perform a table dance. Flashbacks of Raquel in the same strip club, and narrating her story, are seen throughout. Raquel is seen walking in the desert looking for Cowboy who has disappeared, and Kara arrives. In the end, Raquel finds Cowboy dead on a sand hill, after shooting himself. Kara finds Raquel, they cry and comfort each other. Also starring Bill Trillo as Indian. McClure is gorgeous and hot-headed, Parent is attractive and simple, and Tietsort is a questionable cowboy. The script and dialogue is often repetitive and very dumb, the plot is very thin, some of the situations get ridiculous, especially the hotel scene. It is only memorable for the flashes of strippers going topless, and the lesbian scene in the middle that is mildly interesting but should have been longer, it is a silly and hardly worthwhile erotic drama. Adequate!

Surprisingly good

[teadm · 18 January 2001]

An aging stripper (Tan'e McClure) comes into a $2 million inheritance and seizes the opportunity to leave the business and resume her previous "normal" life. What she finds is a reluctant ex-boyfriend who resents her tainted past and a young aspiring stripper on her way to Vegas. The interaction among these characters forms the bulk of the film, and it's mostly fascinating to watch. Some extended softcore sex scenes are thrown in for good measure, but they don't detract from the script's worthiness and the thoughtful direction. At times, the existentialist nature of the story and its presentation reminded me of a Bergman film, and the Death Valley locations are used to excellent effect, to convey the characters' inner turmoil (shades of Erich Von Stroheim's "Greed"). All around, an independent film I can strongly recommend.

Almost no redeeming factors

[kosmasp · 2/10 · 25 July 2012]

The intentions are really well meant, although even saying that might sound like an insult. Problem is, everything is off. If you set aside the fact, that you have a no budget movie here, you should also try not to think of bad framing, lighting, editing and the things that come with those. The script might have sounded kind of clever, but the way it is delivered, will leave you plenty of time to observe all those things that just don't fit.

There is nudity in this, but there are other movies out there that will meet your needs for that. The characters don't really have anything to say (and even if they have from time to time, it goes down the drain with the way it is portrayed by the people involved). There are some stabs at society (which made me give this more than 1 point, because I was kind of "rewarding" that), but you might not even care for those, because you have shut the movie off long before that (rightfully so)