Pretty Lethal

Cast View all

	Maddie Ziegler	Bones
	Lana Condor	Princess
	Lydia Leonard	Miss Thorna
	Avantika Vandanapu	Grace
	Millicent Simmonds	Chloe
	Iris Apatow	Zoe
	Tamas Hagyo	Bus Driver
	Julian Krenn	Yuri
	Miklós Béres	Osip
	Peter Vegh	Amir
	Adam Boncz	Zolly
	Krisztián Csákvári	Artyom
	Uma Thurman	Devora Kasimer
	Kate Freund	Sona
	Tamás Szabó Sipos	Pasha
	Béla Orsányi	Vlad
	David Benko	Piano Player
	Balázs Megyeri	Saber
	Gary Cothenet	Enzo
	Teddy Masson	Gangster
	Gábor Nagypál	Doktor
	Michael Culkin	Lothar Markovic
	Klára Spilák	Marijana Markovic
	Francis McBurney	Bodyguard
	Shahaub Roudbari	Fadey

Crew View all

Director	Vicky Jewson
Writer	Kate Freund
Producer	Georgia Bayliff, William Bindley, Nina Molly Brown, Lauren Cox, Kate Freund, Max Jacoby, Vicky Jewson, Mike Karz, Ildiko Kemeny, Marshall Leviten, Kelly McCormick, David Minkowski, Thomas Salentine, Melinda Szepesi, Piers Tempest, Rupert Whitaker
Musician	Paul Leonard-Morgan
Photography	Bridger Nielson

Trailer

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Notes

My quick rating - 6.2/10. Pretty Lethal walks in wearing pointe shoes and immediately kicks you in the face. Gracefully, of course. The movie opens with a sincere little monologue about the brutal, soul-melting reality of being a ballerina, which might trick you into thinking this is some A24 trauma ballet. Then the opening practice scene hits, and the dancers are throwing hands like they're auditioning for Black Swan: Fight Club Edition. It’s the kind of tonal whiplash I live for on my movie reviews page, because Pretty Lethal clearly knows exactly what it is. A dark comedy–action–horror hybrid that refuses to apologize for any of its choices.

Our five drenched dancers - Bones (Maddie Ziegler), Princess (Lana Condor), Grace (Avantika), Chloe (Millicent Simmonds), and Zoe (Iris Apatow) - wander into a mysterious inn after their bus breaks down, because nothing says “good life decisions” like instantly agreeing to change into tutus in a stranger’s house. But hey, there’s a stage! You’re already in dancewear! Why not loosen up those hamstrings while a guy upstairs is being branded on the tongue? The film doesn’t bother with believability. It leaps straight into chaos like a grand jete performed off a balcony.

At the 18-minute mark, after someone’s brains hit the floor with the elegance of glitter scattering on marley, we finally get the title card for Pretty Lethal, and it feels earned. These girls don’t actually know how to fight, which makes the violence feel hilariously scrappy and weirdly satisfying. Ballet training becomes a weapon. Bruised toes and taped joints turn into improvised survival tools. It’s like watching Van Damme with better extension and more eyeliner.

The choreography really is the secret sauce here. Pretty Lethal blends classical movements with combat in a way that feels fresh instead of gimmicky. A hiding sequence built entirely on dancer flexibility? An entire ensemble routine used to beat the hell out of a small army? Yes, thank you, more of that. And Bones delivers the line of the movie with absolute deadpan perfection after one girl gets drugged: “What kind of a ballerina doesn’t know how to throw up?” It should be on a T-shirt.

Uma Thurman glides through her limited screentime like a sinister casting director who wandered in from a different, classier film but decided to stay because the carnage looked fun. Pretty Lethal never tries to be deep. It prefers being violent, silly, self-aware, and stylish. It flirts with horror, winks at its own absurdity, and pirouettes straight through logic into the land of guilty-pleasure gold.

Is it high art? No. Did I enjoy watching ballerinas stage-combat a mob of henchmen like they’re auditioning for Swan Lake: The Apocalypse? Absolutely. This is the kind of ridiculous genre mashup I’ll happily add to the watchlist for anyone who loves action served with bruises, blood, and a perfectly pointed toe.

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