Pretty hurts. This is the message in the new Netflix film, ‘Uglies,’ starring Keith Powers, Joey King, Laverne Cox, Brianne Tju, and Chase Stokes. ‘Uglies’ is the eponymous film adaptation of Scott Westerfeld’s 2005 best-selling dystopian Sci-Fi novel—the first installment of the literary Uglies series. The novel is set in a futuristic world where members of society are considered “ugly” until the age of 16 when they become eligible for the mandatory, life-altering cosmetic surgery that newly classifies them as “pretty.”

But what will it cost them to become pretty?

In the film’s trailer, Tally Youngblood (Joey King) yearns for the day she is eligible to become a Pretty and reconnect with her friend, Peris (Chase Stokes), who crossed over to New Pretty Town after his surgery. When she sneaks across the river to see Peris on the pretty side of society run by the Head of Special Circumstances, Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox), she senses the strangeness in the atmosphere before her friend Shay (Brianne Tju) offers her an alternative way of living—The Smoke. When Tally arrives at The Smoke, David (Keith Powers) welcomes her to the city of runaway Uglies who oppose the pretty way of living. But when they bring the smoke to New Pretty Town, will their resistance efforts be successful?

This film is a thoughtful Sci-Fi thriller that highlights a cinematic web of beauty, lies, love, betrayal, and resistance.

Check out the trailer for ‘Uglies,’ streaming exclusively on Netflix September 13th.

—Dominique Young