There's lots of flesh but little meat in this grittily naturalistic study of the stripper's lot, developed through five months of improv workshops by director Michael Radford and his hand-picked cast.

Alas, although one can only admire the dedication and commitment of Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Tilly et al, this indulgent, shapeless melodrama fails to deliver either revealing insight or voyeuristic titillation.

In a rundown strip joint in California's San Fernando valley, five exotic dancers juggle their day jobs with their muddled personal lives. Angel (Hannah) is desperate to become a foster mother; Jasmine (Oh) is a would-be poet; while Jo (Tilly) is thrown for a loop when she discovers she is pregnant. Then there's Stormy (Kelly), an old hand shaken by a shadowy figure from her past (Koteas), and Jesse (Ayanna), a newcomer who harbours dreams of Hollywood stardom.

Some of the characters are more engaging than others and a few - particularly Tilly's screeching harpy – are downright aggravating. But that doesn't stop each having their fair share of screen time, with every player given at least one opportunity to chew the scenery with some furious outburst or tearful revelation.

The problem is democracy doesn't make for good drama, and the piece urgently required an overall controlling presence to curb the leads' natural tendency to grandstand. Radford seems too close to the material to view it objectively, and the result is less a finished film in its own right than a selection of random excerpts from an all-star acting workshop.