Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Vicky Jewson
Starring: Uma Thurman, Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Maddie Ziegler, Michael Culkin, Lydia Leonard
Pitting teenage ballerinas against heavily armed Hungarian mobsters, Pretty Lethal gives new meaning to the term "balletic violence." It's a throwback to all those '70s/'80s exploitation thrillers in which stranded cheerleaders were menaced by mouth-breathing rednecks. Surprisingly for a movie debuting on a mainstream streaming service in 2026, it carries over the extreme violence of those movies, along with the threat of sexualised violence, but its tongue is firmly in its cheek.
Our heroines are a quintet of young American ballerinas who travel to Hungary to take part in a prestigious international competition. Bones (Maddie Ziegler) feels like an outsider due to her working class status and is constantly bickering with spoilt rich kid Princess (Lana Condor). Grace (Avantika) is a devout Christian who is calls out the behaviour of her teammates. Zoe (Iris Apatow) looks out for her hearing impaired kid sister Chloe (Millicent Simmonds).
On the way to the tournament the girls' bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Seeking help, they stumble into an inn that resembles a cross between the Mos Eisley Cantina and From Dusk Till Dawn's biker bar. The inn is run by Devora (Uma Thurman), who just happens to have been a ballerina herself, and she makes the girls feel at home by inviting them on stage to perform a dance. Things take a dark turn when the girls witness a murder on the premises, and they spend the rest of the night fighting for their lives.
Pretty Lethal's humorous tone is initially so light and breezy that the inciting act of male on female violence is genuinely shocking. So much so that the movie never quite reckons with how unsettling it is to witness. It's the sort of cruel moment that would likely draw much criticism if Pretty Lethal hadn't been written and directed by women (Kate Freund and Vicky Jewson respectively), and it's surprising to see it dismissed so easily by both the film and its young protagonists, who never seem quite as upset as you would expect.
Put aside the hard to swallow indifference of our heroines in this regard and there is fun to be had here. Dance and violence have long been compared in cinema. Musicals like West Side Story and The Band Wagon (and several Michael Jackson videos) have transformed violent standoffs into dance-offs while the best Asian martial arts movies resemble classic Hollywood musicals in their intricate staging. As such, turning ballerinas into action heroines makes perfect sense. As the movie is keen to point out, these young women are well accustomed to enduring extreme physical pain, and their high-kicking abilities lend them the athletic prowess of prime Jean-Claude Van Damme.
In Pretty Lethal's standout set-piece, the girls attach razor blades to the tips of their pointe shoes and set about slicing the throats of their antagonists in a reversal of the gory bar massacre from Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark. Of course, it's best not to ask why the mobsters don't simply gun down the girls rather than taking them on one by one, but it's a well-staged sequence that sees the ballerinas reappropriate well-rehearsed dance moves. It's a scene that really should have been held for the climax though, as it arrives about an hour into the action and the remaining half hour lags in comparison.
The comedy side of Pretty Lethal is hit and miss. The few laughs mostly come from visual gags of the Scooby Doo/Little Rascals variety as the girls silently tip toe past distracted baddies and squeeze themselves into tiny hiding places. Not enough comedy is mined from the bickering dynamic of the catty group, and the dialogue could be sharper.
Ziegler is impressive here both in her dance moves and her acting, but the idea of her character being an outsider never has any real bearing on the plot. If it seems like a progressive move to add a hearing impaired character played by a deaf actress, the film undermines itself by practically locking Simmonds' Chloe in a room for most of the run time, as if it couldn't figure out how to integrate her character into the action. Thurman is perfectly cast as the imposing Devora, but she's just one of many characters that are merely superficially portrayed.
With a wittier script, more layered characters and a more satisfyingly action-filled final act, Pretty Lethal could have been a new cult fave. As it is, it's yet another straight to streaming action-comedy that is content to settle for "good enough."
Pretty Lethal is on Prime Video from March 25th.
