I guess this is the new normal. Deadly ballerinas are in at the movies. Some are superheroes. Some are vampires. Some are assassins. Or, in Pretty Lethal’s case, some are just…ballerinas, who LEARN to be deadly. I don’t know how many more remixes we can do though, as Pretty Lethal feels like we’re running out of gas on the genre. And Russian operas to use during the battle sequences.
5 Ballerinas from the US are taken by their coach Thorna (Lydia Leonard) to Hungary to compete in an international ballerina competition and to show off their obvious character names. Blue collar Bones (Maddie Ziegler) and Princess (Lana Condor) compete for prima ballerina, while Grace (Avantika) prays their broken down bus in the forest starts soon, and Chloe (Iris Apatow) and Zoe (Millicent Simmonds) bicker like deaf/non-deaf twins do. The troupe eventually decides to hoof it to the next town, stopping during a rainstorm at the Teremok Inn for the night. Unfortunately, if you stop in an Inn, make sure it isn’t run by a desperate demented mob boss named Devora Kasimer (Uma Thurman) in the middle of fighting off her creditors.
Special props to the set designer. The exterior shots give us this imposing presence of a building wer’re about to enter, filled with endless rooms. This mansion has anything and everything to mix things up for the Prime & diner ready for a fun night in. There’s a visceral battle down in the unfinished, inhumane basement prisons. Juxtaposed nicely with a little cat and mouse through the upper floors and the ballerina altars Devora has set up to lament her past. The main hall is there and ready for the big finale, a grand sweeping place where the camera can twirl around with our dancers as they go from first position to locking and loading their box cutter adorned shoes with bloody mayhem.
Listen, the names are a dead giveaway this movie is hammering itself into the heads of the streamers watching at home. As such, Kate Freund’s script doesn’t try real hard to make Pretty Lethal into anything it isn’t. The low stakes allows the girls to play around, as they’re supposed to be novice fighters against larger stupid men. Director Vicky Jewson shoots the battles competently…and violently. Hard r rating for sure with the body count the girls build up over the course of the film. The battles get sillier and sillier as we approach the conclusion, with the big final battle sequence utterly preposterous but fun if you let Pretty Lethal wash over you. Culminated by a psychotic, heavily accented Uma Thurman ready for her sugar plum fairy dance.
I hope this film at least gives Hollywood an in on these 5 ladies. Maddie Ziegler, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, and Iris Apatow have already starred in a bunch of films before they teamed up here. Some are great and some are not, but they’re usually the reason the movies work at all. Here’s hoping they get more fun stuff to do, especially Avantika (destined for comedy greatness) and Millicent Simmonds (there’s action thriller potential for her forever). Maybe a mash up between the ballerinas and the Forbidden Fruits? Here’s hoping!