Synopsis: Five ballerinas, stranded in a remote forest, take shelter at an unsettling roadside inn and must weaponize years of brutal training, turning grace, discipline, and even pointe shoes into tools for survival.
Stars: Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Maddie Ziegler, Michael Culkin, Lydia Leonard, Uma Thurman
Director: Vicky Jewson
Rated: R
Running Length: 88 minutes
Movie Review in Brief: Pretty Lethal has a killer concept and some genuinely thrilling ballet-combat sequences, but the script can’t keep up with its own choreography. Lana Condor steals every scene she’s in, and the first fight is worth the price of admission. Everything after that is diminishing returns.
Review:
Last year’s Ballerina promised ballet-fueled action and barely delivered a plié. Pretty Lethal at least has the decency to let its dancers actually use their training to slice, stab, and spin-kick their way through a gauntlet of Eastern European thugs. That’s the good news. The less good news? It’s a film built on a killer concept that keeps tripping over its own feet everywhere the choreography isn’t doing the heavy lifting.
Five Dancers Walk Into a Death Trap
Admittedly, the setup is lean and efficient. Five members of an LA ballet troupe, barely tolerating each other, are en route to a competition in Budapest (because, of course they are) when their bus breaks down in the Hungarian wilderness (because, of course it did). They take shelter at a remote inn run by Devora Kasimer (Uma Thurman, Jennifer Eight), a former prima ballerina with a prosthetic leg and a criminal enterprise operating out of the back rooms. One witnessed murder and a dead chaperone later, and the girls are locked in the basement with nothing but their leotards, their training, and some razor-sharp pointe shoes.
When the Toe Shoes Come Out, Sparks Fly
Director Vicky Jewson keeps the runtime tight at 88 minutes and understands that her movie lives or dies on the action sequences. When the ballerinas start fighting back, Pretty Lethal becomes the movie its concept promises. Lead choreographer Will Tuckett and stunt coordinator Shahaub Roudbari deserve credit for merging ballet technique with combat choreography in ways that feel specific rather than generic.
The first basement fight sequence is magnificent, and the image of pristine white tutus growing gradually bloodier is genuinely inspired. These aren’t just kicks and spins repurposed as fight moves. The dancers incorporate their actual training, their pointed toes, their discipline-forged endurance, their coordinated teamwork, into survival tactics that feel distinct from the typical action heroine playbook. Cinematographer Bridger Nielson drenches the action in bold color, giving the fight scenes a visual pop that elevates them beyond what the script probably deserved.
The Cast Is a Mixed Bag (With Some Standouts)
Maddie Ziegler (My Old Ass) as Bones brings ferocious physicality to the lead role, throwing herself into the stunt work with total commitment. Whether that raw energy translates to her dramatic scenes is another matter; she’s still developing as a screen actress, though the character’s rough edges work in her favor. Lana Condor (Alita: Battle Angel) is the cast MVP, landing comedic zingers that keep things lively and playing against her usual sweetheart type with evident relish.
Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place) deserved more to do than be sidelined for most of the middle act when she is lured away by a man preying on her virginal curiosity. As her sister, Iris Apatow (Sausage Party) seems to be in a different movie entirely, she’s a long way from the cute charm of This is 40. Avantika (Mean Girls) gets a few laughs as the devoutly religious dancer who naturally stumbles into the worst situations first.
And then there’s Thurman, gnawing on the production design with visible delight as Devora. It’s a scenery-devouring villain role that feels designed for maximum camp, though Thurman occasionally plays it straighter than the material warrants. You want her to go fully Black Swan, and she gets close but never quite commits to the madness.
Style Over Substance, But the Style Is Impressive
Kate Freund’s script gives the dancers broad-stroke personalities (the rich one, the religious one, the sisters) without digging deeper. Once the initial thrill of the first fight wears off, subsequent action beats start to repeat themselves, and the identically dressed ballerinas become harder to distinguish in the chaos. Production designers Zsuzsa Kismarty-Lechner and Charlotte Pearson build a memorably creepy inn, and costume designers Diana Marton and Ildikó Andó create visually striking looks, especially as the film reaches its explosive finale.
Running a brisk 88 minutes, Pretty Lethal isn’t asking for a major time commitment, and viewers looking for graceful kicks to the throat delivered by an elegantly pointed toe adorned with a razor blade will find enough fun in the mayhem. It just never evolves past its first great idea, and for a movie about dancers who specialize in routine, it could have used a more ambitious second act.
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