Make It Happen

Mary Elizabeth Winstead – one of the twittier girls from Death Proof – stars as a grown up orphan with dreams of entering the Chicago School of Music and Dance. When her audition doesn’t go according to plan, she lies to her brother back in Generic, Indiana and takes up residency in an ill-defined burlesque club. It’s pole dancing but not as we know it. For one thing, there’s no knocking shop out back. For another, the joint is patronised almost exclusively by female well-wishers who cheer politely as their fully clothed idols wiggle in a surprisingly modest manner.

As the preposterously short running time suggests, nothing much happens in Make It Happen. There are a couple of vaguely sketched supporting characters – the mean girl, the dreamy boy, the dead mommy – who periodically appear to no real end. The plot – girl doesn’t get into ballet academy, then she does – scarcely qualifies as perfunctory. Even the dance routines are a lazy mash up of close ups, fast cuts and body doubles. We counted at least two stunt arses. There’s a DVD in it for anyone who can do better.