Pretty Lethal review
Don’t mess with ballerinas.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Pretty Lethal
Directed by Vicky Jewson
Written by Kate Freund
Starring Maddie Ziegler, Lana Condor, Iris Apatow, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Michael Culkin, Lydia Leonard and Uma Thurman
Pretty Lethal Review
Ballet has always lent itself well to genre stories. The precision and almost inhuman commitment required to achieve it makes for an easy connection to nightmares. Suspiria and Black Swan told haunting stories set against its backdrop. Abigail presented a young vampire ballerina antagonist. Even the John Wick franchise recognized the marriage between movement and assassin work. So, it’s no surprise that Pretty Lethal throw a troupe of ballerinas into a fight for their lives. Who is more equipped to handle themselves, after all?
A feuding American ballet troupe finds themselves in a fight for their lives after their bus breaks down on the way to a prestigious competition in a foreign country. Taking refuge in a rural inn run by the evil Devora Kasimer (Uma Thurman), the group must use their specialized training to survive the night.
Pretty Lethal doesn’t take long to get going. It quickly establishes the fractured relationship between its five dancers…strands them at the inn…and shows them the danger they face all before the title card pops onto the screen. That comes about 18 minutes into the movie…but the pacing is exactly what you want for this type of movie. That title card arrives with a bang…as the dancer’s instructor and caretaker is unceremoniously shot in the back of the head by one of the many seedy and dangerous characters populating the establishment. Devora is in charge of whatever operation they have going…but her henchmen lack any self-control whatsoever.
Bones (Maddie Ziegler) is the outcast among the group. She’s on the verge of quitting altogether when we meet her in Pretty Lethal. She’s also the one who quickly establishes herself as the leader of the group when things turn deadly. She inspires the others to fight back, work together and try to keep calm heads as they attempt to fight their way out of the situation. Having witnessed the murder…the girls are in imminent danger. It’s easier to kill five foreigners than worry about them reporting what happened.
If the setup sounds like it’s leading to a pretty predictable second half of the story…it is. But that doesn’t mean that Pretty Lethal can’t be a fun watch anyway. Watching the troupe dance fight the larger thugs isn’t something that gets old quickly. They can be vicious and precise…just like their training has taught them to be. The cast does a lot to elevate what could have been an easily disposable action thriller. Each of the ballerinas has a distinct personality brought to life by their actresses…and they’re believable as frenemies dealing with a bigger problem. There are some funny moments but most of the entertainment comes from the little digs and asides in their character work.
There’s also a climactic group battle scene that is fun enough to make the movie worth watching on its own. A bloody, violent and funny sequence where the troupe comes together to dance/kill their way through a legion of bad guys. The production values are high in Pretty Lethal…and this sequence brings the good stuff. There’s also a subplot going on between Thurman’s character and one of the other bad guys. At first it feels tacked on but ultimately it ties into her backstory and allows Thurman to join in on the fun. And really, when you saw her name among the cast list for Pretty Lethal…isn’t that what we all wanted?
That represents the greatest strength of Pretty Lethal. Understanding what you want out of a ballerina revenge/escape action thriller. Fun characters bringing dance based violence in a story that doesn’t weigh itself down with unnecessary stuff. It’s straightforward, fast paced and often ridiculous (in a fun way). A bloody ballet with enough attitude and self-awareness to let that be the point.
Scare Value
Pretty Lethal offers up some blood-soaked choreography featuring likable characters. It might rate high on the predictability scale…but something about watching a group fight scene in full dance mode with hammers and razor blades doesn’t need an unpredictable story behind it. Sometimes movies can just be fun. Pretty Lethal is pretty fun. If you have Amazon Prime you could certainly do worse for a streaming option.
3/5
Pretty Lethal Link
Streaming on Amazon Prime
