Last week I was curious and scrolling through a variety of streaming services to find a relatively new movie that could hold my attention.
I think the hardest part of that job is that most streaming services have a “New” category, but it doesn’t just include brand new releases – it also includes older films that are new to that platform.
However, I lucked out on Prime Video and came across “Pretty Lethal” – which featured a troupe of dysfunctional ballerinas trying to overcome their differences and safely escape from a mob-controlled bar.
It’s obviously a bloody and violent experience, but there are also outlandish moments and ballerina behavior that made this more entertaining than I hoped for.
Lethal is an action thriller film directed by Vicky Jewson and written by Kate Freund.
The film stars Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Maddie Ziegler, Lydia Leonard, Tamás Szabó Sipos, Miklós Béres, and Uma Thurman.
While the movie clocks in at 88 minutes long, it’s also rated R for strong bloody violence, and language.
Los Angeles ballet troupe dancers Bones (Ziegler), Princess (Condor), Grace (Avantika), Zoe (Apatow), and Chloe (Simmonds) are invited to attend a competition in Budapest and are accompanied by their dance instructor, Thorna Davenport (Leonard).
After arriving in Hungary, their bus breaks down in a forest, and rather than wait for the driver to fix it, the group decides to search for a nearby town to make a call.
They soon encounter the Teremok Inn run by Devora Kasimer (Thurman), a former legendary prima ballerina, who runs the performance art themed hotel.
All five girls are welcomed in; they change into their tutus to replace their clothes that got wet in the rain.
While taking Chloe to the ladies’ room, Thorna discovers Devora and her sons torturing someone and branding his tongue.
Thorna then decides to get the girls out of the hotel, but is halted by vicious gangster Pasha Marcovic (Sipos) after she rejected his unwanted advances.
Thorna knees him in the groin and as a result, Pasha kills her by shooting her in the head right in front of the dance troupe and everyone at the bar.
Devora is displeased by this, and Bones attempts to flee, only to be recaptured and tied up, while the rest of the girls are escorted to the basement.
Angered by Pasha’s actions, Devora refuses to provide the inn’s monthly protection payment until she meets his father, and hires a cleaner, Doktor, to dispose of the bodies while the dancers’ passports and cell phones are destroyed.
Bones awakens to find Grace drugged up and escapes her binds while Grace is interrogated by Devora’s staff.
Unfortunately, the doorman Osip (Béres) arrives to rape Grace, but Bones kills him while reuniting with Princess and Zoe.
Pasha later sends his goons to kill the ballerinas.
Bones and the others encounter them and use their ballet training in a fighting form, defeating the henchmen.
Bones, Zoe, and Grace decide to look for Chloe, but Princess is more interested in escaping.
The girls find Chloe as well as Devora’s ballet memorabilia while Princess discovers Doktor chopping off Thorna’s fingertips.
All five girls reunite while Devora orders her henchmen to find and kill the girls.
While the movie’s ending pulls together all of the various ballerina attitudes and fills in a very thin plotline for Devora, overall I found it entertaining in its own way.
I don’t think I’ll be re-watching it any time soon, but it was an interesting take on prima ballerinas that I had not expected.
