Ballerinas fight for their lives in 87North’s latest

PLOT: A ballet troupe, on the way to a prestigious competition in Budapest, gets stuck in a dive bar when their bus breaks down. After witnessing a murder, they find themselves hunted by the minions of the murderous bar owner, Devora (Uma Thurman), and are forced to band together to survive the night.

REVIEW: Prime Video has become a solid spot for meat-and-potatoes action flicks. Road House, Heads of State, and The Wrecking Crew all did well, and now 87North, the action team behind the Nobody films, Violent Night, and The Fall Guy, has entered the fray with a unique take on the genre. While last year’s Ballerina was the first movie to embrace the notion that the hard, punishing lifestyle of a ballerina could make for a strong action heroine, director Vicky Jewson’s Pretty Lethal is a lot more fun. Moreover, it actually features ballerina choreography as central to the action, with teamwork, flexibility, and physical prowess helping our heroines survive the night.

Running a tight eighty-eight minutes and adopting a light, breezy tone, with lots of dark comedy mixed in, Pretty Lethal is a total blast. The girls in the troupe are deeply dysfunctional but learn—in classic action movie fashion—to work as a team, with the dynamic between Maddie Ziegler’s Bones and Lana Condor’s Princess giving the movie its heart. Bones is a streetwise dancer from the wrong side of the tracks, but the most talented in the troupe, something which rankles the uptight, spoiled Princess, who is used to being the star. The rest of the girls are a bit less developed, but still a lot of fun. The highlight is definitely Mean Girls (the musical) star Avantika as Grace, the religious one who gets dosed with Molly and spends the rest of the movie high. Then there’s Iris Apatow and A Quiet Place star Millicent Simmonds as sisters, although both wind up offscreen for large chunks of the movie, with the focus staying on Ziegler and Condor.

Ziegler, who initially rose to fame as a dancer, makes for an engaging action heroine, with her dominating the action sequences. Jewson, who previously helmed the well-received Naomi Rapace action flick Close, and 87North do a good job making the fights relatively credible and not too silly. The petite ballerinas aren’t throwing hulking men across rooms. Rather, they surprise their opponents with agility and teamwork, with them putting razor blades in their shoes and using high kicks to slice necks. The fact that they are physically overpowered is pivotal, as Ziegler’s character injures her hand when she tries to punch one in the face. As such, you really get invested in their survival, and the dance fight sequences are almost reminiscent of Gymkata—where gymnastics influenced the choreography—but to be sure, this is better designed and a lot less cheesy.

However, one can’t deny there are a few missed opportunities. Uma Thurman is cast against type as the villain, Devora, but it’s a bit of a cheat when perhaps the greatest female action star of her era never really gets to do any fighting, with her just ordering around goons. They also work hard to give her some pathos, but it’s laid on a little too thick at the end, which feels too convenient.

Even still, Pretty Lethal is a blast, and it’s the perfect movie to pop into the streaming queue on a Friday night after a couple of beers. Ziegler and Condor have solid buddy movie chemistry, and Jewson has a good sense of action, with 87North once again delivering a well-honed product. This was better than I expected.

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