Pretty Lethal announces itself immediately with a SNAP. The opening needle drop of Rhythm Is a Dancer hits not as nostalgia bait but as something warped and echoing, familiar yet remixed into something colder. It sets the tone instantly. This is not a dainty ballet movie. This is a blood-soaked action nightmare dressed in pointe shoes.
Directed by Vicky Jewson, Pretty Lethal follows five ballerinas whose bus breaks down while traveling through Hungary, forcing them to take shelter at an isolated roadside inn. What sounds like a setup you have seen a hundred times twists quickly into something far more brutal, stylish, and unrelenting. If you ever wondered what would happen if Ready or Not had a child with Abigail and raised it on 90s action movies, this is your answer.
The ballerina b-roll throughout is gorgeous and relentless. Every plié and pirouette feels weaponized, and it is impossible not to think about how insanely difficult this movie must have been to both perform in and direct. The choreography alone feels like controlled chaos. When the violence kicks in, it does not slow down or explain itself. It just keeps escalating.
The film leans heavily into needle drops, and somehow, every one works. C and C Music Factory’s Gonna Make You Sweat drops at a moment that should not work but absolutely does. Ballet music playing during attacks is inspired and borderline unhinged in the best way. There is a recurring Nutcracker motif that loops back around beautifully once the film is fully unspooled, including circling back to that opening track in a way that feels earned rather than cute.
Once the bus breaks down and the scenery opens up, the film gets shockingly beautiful. The forest, the inn, the interiors, the strange performance art decor, it all looks incredible. If there is not a dancer in the frame, there is some jaw-dropping set design. Every hallway, room, and staircase feels like it is waiting to be turned into a battlefield. And it is.
That environmental storytelling pays off hard in the fights. People are slammed into walls, pushed through spaces, and attacked with whatever happens to be nearby. Razor blades in pointe shoes are already iconic, but the way the dancers move through rooms like they were designed for combat rather than performance is what really sells it. Bones popping in and out, bodies contorting, limbs bending in ways that feel both balletic and horrifying. These women fight like Chun Li if she trained at the Bolshoi.
Maddie Ziegler is an absolute force, but Iris Apatow is the surprise standout. She gets room to act here, real room, and she feels completely at home in this heightened genre space. Uma Thurman, meanwhile, channels full Kill Bill energy without slipping into parody. It feels intentional, like the film knows exactly who it cast her as and leans all the way in. Quentin Tarantino would eat this movie alive. There are feet everywhere. There is blood everywhere. Thurman is holding court.
Outside of the ballerinas, the movie leans into classic 90s action archetypes. The bad guys look like bad guys in a way that feels comforting. They are recognizable genre villains, which gives the chaos a weird sense of legitimacy. This could have turned cartoony, but instead it lands right between Demon Knight and Sisu. Brutal in a way that never lets you feel safe.
And nobody is safe. Truly. Like Game of Thrones, this movie makes it very clear that anyone can die at any time. Just when you think a character might be protected by narrative logic, the film proves you wrong. Again and again. It is vicious. It is mean. It does not care if you are attached.
There is a subplot involving one character tripping on drugs, shown through CG-enhanced perspective shifts. It is visually impressive but largely unnecessary, like the film briefly forgot it was already doing enough. Not everything comedic lands either, especially some of the more try-hard jokes, but the simpler humor works very well. When the movie relaxes and lets moments breathe, those laughs hit hardest.
The cast is layered, even down to smaller roles. There is a mystery element threaded throughout that keeps things moving and prevents the mayhem from becoming hollow. There are coincidences, sure, a lot of them, but if you turn your brain off even a little, the ride is worth it.
One missed opportunity is a potential third-act cameo as the big bad. A named actor showing up could have pushed things into legendary territory, but the payoff we get is strong enough that it barely matters.
Seeing this with an audience was a blast. People gasped. People laughed. People winced. It is a real shame this is heading straight to streaming, because Pretty Lethal plays best loud, with a crowd, soaking in the insanity together.
By the time it ends, soaked in blood and sweat, with ballerinas literally fighting in their pointe shoes, the movie has fully earned its place. It is brutal. It is funny. It is gorgeously choreographed. And it proves, once and for all, that ballet is cool, action-packed, entertaining, and absolutely lethal. Suck it, Chalamet.
Jessie Hobson