He is also concerned about the overall tone of the studios: “American cinema today is missing all existential thought. Studios try to make themselves feel good with the movies that make it to the Oscars,” he said in an interview with The Playlist . SHOWGIRLS Showgirls MGM The much less explicit but still sexually charged relationship between Nomi (Elizabeth Berkley) and Cristal (Gina Gershon) in the controversial movie Showgirls also points to how society puts women against each other. Showgirls does a great job at showing how patriarchal American society—and the show business industry specifically—objectifies women. To make Showgirls, Verhoeven and writer Joe Eszterhas did extensive interviews with people working in the Las Vegas show business industry.