Directed By Vicky Jewson

Starring – Maddie Ziegler, Iris Apatow, Uma Thurman

The Plot – When five ballerinas (Apatow, Ziegler, Avantika, Millicent Simmonds, Lana Condor) take refuge at a secluded roadside inn during a sudden detour, they expect a brief respite from the pressures of competition. Instead, they find themselves trapped in a deadly game orchestrated by the inn’s enigmatic owner (Thurman), a former ballet prodigy whose obsession with perfection has taken a dark and dangerous turn. As rivalries flare and secrets surface, the dancers must fight to survive in a place where grace and discipline offer no protection from the terror unfolding behind closed doors.

Rated R for strong bloody violence and adult language

Pretty Lethal – Official Trailer | Prime Video

POSITIVES

Individually assessed, there are a few compelling aspects to the movie’s execution that helps to keep it from ultimately being one of the year’s worst movies, beginning with the intensity and creativity of the action sequences, full of vitriolic vengeance and unhinged uniqueness that play particularly well towards the film’s campy consistencies in tone. Being that these are ballerinas involved directly in the middle of a Russian mob clash, it forces each of our femme fatales to invoke their own brand of offense, in order to even the stakes, and with hilariously over-the-top fight choreography involving their many stage dance moves with a violent underlining, the movie takes advantage of the distinction of its character capabilities, all the while effortlessly breeding out the physical chemistry between them that far exceeds those of their emotional interactions, affording the audience a couple of gut-wrenching sequences that are paid off generously in the confines of a boldly intricate layer of sound design that makes every thud to the floor permeate a gravitationally heavy impact. Unlike most movies before it, I’m happy that the film approaches the bodily mass imbalance at the forefront of this movie’s conflict logically, in that these petite ballerinas aren’t as able to overcome their hulking mob in bodily strength, so they instead require creativity in the extent of their devastation, in order to even the odds, and while there’s still an abundance of suspended disbelief required for the audience to meet its reality at eye level, it at least conjures sensibility towards psychology in ways that make sense in the extent of these respective characters, appraising something cunningly fresh and unique for what is easily the single most redundant genre in all of cinema. Mirroring the many dance choreography bouts of physicality that spice up these sequences, the film is also brilliantly scored by Paul-Leonard Morgan, whose orchestral channeling of many familiar ballet compositions imbeds an off-putting elegance to brutalized imagery that bathes in blood, crafting an atmospheric juxtaposition that instantly breeds with it a fun factor that Jewson’s direction leans so heavily on. While I would never consider myself to be an expert among ballet music, I can say that the themes pertaining to Swan Lake and especially The Nutcracker elicited subconsciously stirring reminders of time-cherished favorites, all the while encompassing them in entirely different light in the extent of the surrounding devastation, and considering Morgan combines it with a double dose of Rhythm is a Dancer from Snap!, it proves an ample versatility among the audible deviations that he continuously calls upon, allowing for a thoroughly rich personality that encompasses a chaos factor to so many of the aforementioned sequences of physicality. Lastly, while the performances are admittedly a mixed bag among our fabulous fivesome of dancers, Uma Thurman’s work as this dangerously unrelenting antagonist elevates the movie with class and especially presence among her peers, digging deep into the psychological anguish and thick Russian accent of the character in ways that help her to transcend the one-dimensionality of characterization that immediately flounders so many of its characters. Thurman’s dramatic magnetism among overwrought peers literally and figuratively gives her a leg up on the competition, but beyond that enacts a rich psychology to the character that says as much about her in actions as a script can say with a thousand words of dialogue, tapping into the darker and edgier side of the actress in ways that proves she’s still a proverbial force to be reckoned with in any movie that she advantageously graces.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, this is another example of a soulless shill of streaming content used to burn time for boredom, instead of being a rip-roaring good time of exhaled intensity, particularly towards a flatly registering and cliche-caked screenplay without a single fascinating component to its capture. It starts with the single word outline among its characterization, with each of the ballet dancers being linked to types in ways that completely absolve any opportunity to live within and grow with these characters, as a result of the breakneck pacing that the movie adopts as quickly as its opening scene. While I typically celebrate any movie that isn’t given any chance to feel the extent of its runtime, I can say here that it comes at the cost of believability in the strangely bewildering actions of its characters, as well as surface level supernatural subplots that are introduced, then never elaborated on throughout the entirety of the film, making this feel like there’s an abundance of edited-out material that was left irresponsibly on the cutting room floor. The thinly written characterization would be forgivable if any of the youthful performances mustered any semblance of charisma or even accidental charm to their respective captures, but so many of these approaches feel overdelivered on the singularly encompassing verb to define their personalities, particularly Ziegler’s Bones, who basically is nothing other than a badass girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Ziegler accentuates this notion with a too-cool-for-school attitude and unintentionally hilarious impulse of intensity that absolves any scene it’s utilized upon of its situational tension and overwhelming adversity, and though this role feels catered directly for Ziegler, as she was a child dancer on the TV show, Dance Moms, it’s clear that the transition into acting hasn’t come with any credible notion of subtlety or nuance to her deliveries, often making her a noticeable distraction that detracts away from capably investing into a scene. Ziegler isn’t entirely to blame for her flawed protagonist, as the dialogue within the script conjures these spoon-fed sentiments meant to hammer home as many bullet points in a sentence as possible, without any of the desire to pursue them elaborately with seamlessly synthetic responses that feel more in-tow with the characters, rather than some screenwriter watching off-screen. Because so many of the conversations feel heavily intentioned, without anything even closely resembling spontaneity, there’s a real dull tedium to the interactions that feel plucked from any similarly structured movie that came before it, making this feel like one of those movies that you could watch on mute, and feel like you could still follow along with it, on account of such a lack of originality with any of these characters. If this isn’t enough, the film is heavily predictable and uninteresting for long periods of its 85-minute runtime, as a result of never taking advantage of the opportunities enabled in the storytelling, such as the inevitable appearance of the most powerful mob boss, which should enact with it an unforeseen cameo appearance from an actor whom you wouldn’t expect in the role, but instead is just another Russian actor who visually looks the part, and while it’s one of many examples littered casually throughout unfulfilled introductory aspects, it’s a great insight into how forgettable the whole experience is, despite such a uniquely alluring element of ballet dancers becoming action stars, where the momentum unceremoniously exults itself with each passing scene that says so much, yet produces so little compelling rewards for the investment, especially in the contrast of another Ballerina beatdown of a movie like John Wick’s Ballerina, which just came out last year. As for the filmmaking, there’s very little radiantly enamoring about Jewson’s direction that makes it feel cinematic or endearing among its straight-to-streaming sensibilities, whether in the murky monotony of the overall presentation and set designs, or the active documentation among the movie’s cinematography, which feels too anxiously erratic, in order to mirror the bodily responses of its characters enveloped in conflict. On the former, there’s a real missed opportunity for this single stage bar setting to enact some intoxicating allure that speaks out to American girls seeking taboo nightlife, instead of the obvious crudeness that is entailed about them as quickly as the first image we indulge upon it, and the latter, while attempting more of the Matthew Vaughn style of camera captivity, doesn’t bottle with it the kind of intensity and vulnerability factors that frenetically enhanced his captures, requiring the aforementioned fight choreography to work overtime towards translating anything even palpably riveting to its audience.

OVERALL
Pretty Lethal squanders flatly with a superficially shallow execution that underwhelms the extent of such a fascinating premise, leveling audiences with a lean, mean and monotonously bien 85 minutes that is in an abrupt rush to get nowhere with either its flat characters or derivatively cliche’d outline. Despite individual components enacting a creatively rich and alluring uniqueness to the ballet-heavy fight choreography, or Uma Thurman’s elevating antagonist, the film is nowhere near the frenetic fireworks that it manipulatively advertises, without anywhere near the level of personality or prominent direction to maintain its balance or composure for its adoring spectators.

My Grade: 4.6 or D