If it feels like you’ve already seen Ballerina – the new John Wick spin-off in which Ana de Armas plays a pirouetting assassin –you’re likely thinking of 2018’s Red Sparrow, in which Jennifer Lawrence stars as a Russian ballerina-turned-spy. It’s that, or maybe the flashbacks in Black Widow of the Marvel superhero’s childhood in the nefarious (and also Russian) Red Room, in which regular time at the barre formed part of the programme’s deadly curriculum.
It’d be nice if someone in Hollywood could try out a different metaphor for lethal feminine strength. But, for now, we’re here, where Armas’s Eve Macarro is raised by the same Ruska Roma (once again, Russian) clan that transformed Keanu Reeves’s Wick into the feared Baba Yaga, trained in the art of both murder and pliés. She’s seeking revenge against the man (Gabriel Byrne’s the Chancellor) responsible for her father’s (David Castañeda) death, all while trying to dodge a constant volley of “female assassin” stereotypes.
