Make It Happen

Make It Happen (2008) is a dance drama directed by Darren Grant — watch it online on iFILM. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Lauryn, a young woman who leaves her small Indiana town and drives to Chicago to audition for the city's top music and dance conservatory.

The audition goes badly. Money runs out fast. Lauryn lands a job at a burlesque club — and finds that the stage there teaches her things no classroom had. The choreography is looser, the crowds more immediate, and the rules are whatever the music demands. Tessa Thompson appears in an early career role, and Riley Smith plays a love interest who shows up at exactly the wrong moment.

Director Darren Grant keeps the story grounded: no overnight success, no tidy shortcuts. Lauryn has to decide what she actually wants versus what she thought she wanted, and the film lets that tension sit without rushing toward a resolution. The dance sequences were shot tight and close, which gives the performance scenes more physical weight than the standard stage-competition format. Stream Make It Happen (2008) online on iFILM.