RON’S BEARD VS PRETTY LETHAL

Do these fighting ballerinas take a bow, or do they kick the bucket? Ron (and his epic beard) takes a look to see if Pretty Lethal is a black swan or just a turkey in disguise.

A dysfunctional ballet troupe is forced to take shelter when their bus breaks down enroute to a prestigious competition and must use their training to fight back when a gang of armed men target them.

Directed by: Vicky Jewson

Written by: Kate Freund

Starring: Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Maddie Ziegler, and Uma Thurman.

Run Time: 88 minutes

There’s just something about the world of dance that inspires moviemakers to think about ways to turn the graceful movements and physical discipline into scenes designed to horrify and shock, rather than inspire and awe. Dario Argengo and Luca Guadagnino turned dance dreams into cinematic nightmares. Darren Aronofsky turned the pressure-cooker of high-level ballet into psychological horror. 87Eleven took the idea of ballet school as a front for assassins, introduced in John Wick, and turned it into a starring vehicle for Ana de Armas. Now step-sibling studio 87North is turning the idea at the heart of 2025’s Ballerina on its head by seeing just how well ballet translates to battle.

From the opening moments, in which punk rock ballerina Bones (Maddie Ziegler) starts butting heads with the rest of her troupe, it’s pretty clear that there’s more to the politics of ballet than who does the prettiest pirouette. The graceful movements and rehearsed routines conceal a world of broken toes, aching limbs, and cut-throat competition. Bones is the principal dancer, and Princess wants to take her place. As a backdrop to their intrasquad competition, the girls are actively working to be prepared for a prestigious competition in Budapest, Hungary.

No one who has ever seen a movie will be surprised to know that the rickety bus that’s taking the girls to the competition breaks down, and the helpful locals who invite the girls to the nearby inn run by Devora Kasimer (Uma Thurman) aren’t really that helpful. Turns out the Teremok Inn isn’t a quaint little roadside tavern. It’s not even Dr. Frankenfurter’s Gothic sex palace. It’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy replete with Eastern European criminals and the girls have to fight their way to freedom using only their impressive physical skills.

The dance scenes are all well and good. Most of the cast has dance training; Maddie Ziegler famously starred on Dance Moms and in Sia’s videos, Avantika won a dance competition show in India, and Lana Condor spent time with the Los Angeles Ballet among others. The physicality of dance lends itself well to the physicality of combat, and 87North continues David Leitch’s legacy of action prowess by blending dance with combat in innovative, interesting ways. Considering the studio turned comic actors like Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Bob Odenkirk into credible action leads, that’s not a huge surprise. The cast is fairly young and mostly unknown to the wider audience (aside from Iris Apatow and people who remember the Chandelier music video) and while the acting scenes are nothing to write home about, there’s a nice sweetness in the quieter character moments between Millicent Simmonds’ deaf dancer Chloe and Zoe (Apatow). Lana Condor is an appreciably “spoiled princess” foil to the acerbic Bones (Ziegler). The characterizations play out as expected, but at the same time, this isn’t the sort of movie where the acting matters; Pretty Lethal is all about the action.

This is where the movie shines. The second unit does yeoman’s work. Shahaub Roudbari is best known as a stuntman and action coordinator on various Marvel TV projects, and it shows in the way the action is handled. The choreography is spectacular, and the camera movements within the fight scenes highlight the chaos, as well as the ferocity, with which these ballerinas fight for their survival while still showing off the beauty of dance. If Busby Berkeley gave his dancers machetes, it might look something like Pretty Lethal.

While the movie is a bit slow to take off, when the action scenes begin, the film infuses with a silliness as you see ballet dancers in tutus engaged in bloody combat with grungy stuntmen in a surprisingly large mansion-turned-bar. Clearly, everyone knew that was what was going to sell the movie and differentiate it from the other ballet-centric non-dance movies. While the film takes a little time to get rolling, once the finale kicks off and the tables are turned, the giddy energy of the initial “girl power” ballet fighting cranks up.

The inventive way in which the world of ballet melds with the world of martial arts proves to be the highlight of the film and as good a reason as any to actually sit and devote the time to Amazon’s latest streaming action feature. Consider Pretty Lethal as a counterpoint to the macho gun-fu world of Wick and friends. If nothing else, even the most jaded action movie devotee hasn’t seen something as gloriously bloody and inventive as Nutcracker-inspired fight sequences in pointe shoes.

Ron Hogan is a writer, podcaster, gadabout, and raconteur from Louisville, Kentucky. You can read his written works at Den of Geek, Film Stories, and at several magazines and sites that no longer exist. You can hear his voice (and potentially see his magnificent beard) on the Film Strip Podcast.

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