"Pretty Lethal" (Jewson, 2026) - Review

Pretty Lethal is a fun and blood-soaked spectacle, with choreography that makes every fight and kill incredibly satisfying to watch. 

Written by Mariane Tremblay

"Inside every ballerina’s heart is the blood of a warrior. They turn pain into beauty… chaos into precision… their bodies into art. Sweat, blood, sacrifice… But not everyone achieves their dream."

Pretty Lethal is Vicky Jewson’s (Close, Born Of War) newest feature movie. Written by Kate Freund (her first feature film screenplay), the movie follows a group of American ballerinas: Bones (Maddie Ziegler), Princess (Lana Condor), Grace (Avantika), Zoe (Iris Apatow), and Chloe (Millicent Simmonds), travelling for a prestigious dance competition in Budapest. When their bus breaks down in the forest on their way to the competition, they’re forced to walk to the nearest city and end up at the unsettling Teremok Inn, run by recluse Devora Kasimer (Uma Thurman), a former ballet prodigy. Their brief stopover quickly turns into a nightmare when someone gets killed in the middle of the bar. Trapped at the Teremok Inn, they must set aside their rivalry, fight for survival and find a way to escape. 

Jewson's new movie is probably one of the most fun action-thrillers I’ve seen in a while—a blood-soaked spectacle, with choreography that makes every fight and kill incredibly satisfying to watch. There's nothing quite like watching women on screen kick some asses! Having a cast led by five young women is simply amazing, and we need more movies like this: more stories made by women, starring women, and for women—stories about female empowerment.

For Jewson, telling stories about women in the action space is something she's passionate about, and it shows throughout this movie. But Pretty Lethal is more than just spectacle; it treats action as a character itself, as producer Kelly McCormick (Bullet Train, Nobody, Nobody 2) explains. Writer Kate Freund said she "felt frustrated with the lack of female representation and powerful female stories in the action space in film, and was inspired to create this story." She found inspiration in her past as a ballet dancer, remembering the girls sitting on the hardwood floor with their bloody and blistered feet, having these razor blades in their hands and shaving off calluses or slicing off the satin on their point shoes. That’s when it all came together.

But beyond the female empowerment depicted in the movie, there’s also Uma Thurman (Kill Bill) "passing the torch" to a new generation of female protagonists, embodying rage and revenge against the men who wronged them, which feels absolutely iconic. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I truly believe that Thurman is one of the most badass women ever put on screen, which makes her presence in this movie just as perfect as can be. 

By contrasting two worlds, the movie challenges our perception of ballet and ballerinas, generally considered the embodiment of grace, femininity, and fragility. In this story, they are trapped in an inn and forced to fight, and even kill, gangsters; a violent twist that seems almost unimaginable compared with the delicate image we associate with them. But "dancers are soldiers. They are disciplined. They are regimented. They have to be in shape, push themselves past pain and perform all whilst having a smile on their faces," and Freund wanted to create characters that break down those boundaries, challenge stereotypes, and champion women’s voices, which makes Pretty Lethal even more compelling. Each character brings something unique, with their own strengths, quirks, and perspectives, and together they form a cohesive dance troupe. And it’s those differences that end up complementing one another, turning them into a team that is far stronger as a whole than as individuals.

Choreographed by Will Tuckett, who has been choreographing for and performing as a member of the Royal Ballet for over twenty-five years, every fight becomes sheer spectacle for its audience. "My vision  for the choreography on this was to get behind Vicky [Jewson], and obey her vision [...] It was about aligning worlds and finding ways to describe young women working together." Physicality and movement are at the centre of this movie as they serve as a way to tell the story. "We wanted to base everything from the dance perspective and make sure we paid respect to every character that could pick them out in the fights and their characters through the action," adds stunt coordinator Adam Horton. Every fight move originates from a dance move, which makes everything even more spectacular and fun to watch.

With its exquisite production design reminiscent of a hidden speakeasy or a brothel, the movie truly has almost everything to please its viewers. Jewson wanted to create a world with its own rules, and it’s fair to say that her vision perfectly came to life with the help of Zsuzsi Kismarty-Lechner (Borderlands, Red Sparrow, Atomic Blonde), who created a velvet-drenched and immersive world where shadows linger, and light diffuses into soft, muted reflections. Velvet, carpets, softly glowing lamps, and relics from the past life of a bitter former ballet dancer all contribute to a tactile richness that gives the space an intimate, mysterious, and slightly unsettling atmosphere, perfectly reflecting Jewson’s vision. All the details from the bar to Devora's office, where she preserved all her memorabilia, are meticulously crafted, and I am genuinely obsessed with her work on this movie. 

The only negative thing about Pretty Lethal is the lack of character development and background—we barely know anything about anyone, except for a few facts thrown in here and there. I believe the movie would definitely have benefited from this, allowing the audience to connect even more with its characters, and maybe even relate to their journeys (hopefully not the one they are going through in Hungary). Knowing more about the ballerinas would not only have made it more interesting, but it would’ve made the viewers understand even more why they’re acting the way they are. Throughout the movie, I also found myself wanting to know more about Devora’s backstory, as it’s been told a little too quickly (and without many details) toward the end. She was undoubtedly more complex than she initially seemed, but thanks to Thurman’s performance, it was clear from the moment she first appeared on screen that she was far more than just a ruthless innkeeper and the head of a family gang.

Which brings us back to the opening monologue: "Inside every ballerina’s heart is the blood of a warrior… But not everyone achieves their dream." Devora is the embodiment of that idea. On the surface, she seems heartless, almost detached, like she doesn’t care about anyone. But deep down, she’s still that girl whose only dream was to become the Sugar Plum Fairy. A dream that was taken from her before she ever had the chance to fulfil it. She didn’t get to turn her pain into beauty the way the monologue describes, so instead she turned it into something else entirely: violence, control, and survival. But you can sense that she sees herself in the girls, even if the way she shows it is completely twisted, because at the core of everything they all share the same dream: being a ballet dancer. 

All in all, the audience can only have fun watching this more-than-satisfying, gruesome ballerina movie. Blood, sweat, tutus, and ballet point shoes with blades perfect for slicing throats, what more could you want? 

Pretty Lethal will be streaming on Prime Video on March 25.