On this episode of ReelTalk, host R.L. Terry is joined by returning guest film critic E.J. Moreno to celebrate the 75th anniversary of All About Eve and the 30th anniversary of Showgirls. 

“Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be [a gripping show].” This year marks 75 years since All About Eve—Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Oscar-winning backstage classic—first showed us that the spotlight can be both intoxicating and destructive. Starring the incomparable Bette Davis, It remains a cinematic masterclass in wit, ambition, and the quiet terror of being replaced by the next bright young thing.

Thirty years later, Paul Verhoeven’s audacious Showgirls gave us a much louder, more garish echo of those same ideas. What Margo Channing’s Broadway was to 1950, Nomi Malone’s Las Vegas was to 1995—a hall of mirrors reflecting fame, desire, and identity as performance.

One is hailed as one of the greatest films of all time; the other was once called one of the worst. But both confront the same truth: the cost of climbing the ladder to fame is often your sense of self.

So, we’re looking at two films separated by decades and sensibilities, but united by their fascination with ambition—the bright lights that promise everything, and the shadows that follow close behind.