Gunpowder Milkshake

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Gunpowder Milkshake follows Sam, a young assassin whose hitman mother abandoned her when she was young and who has been raised by the same organisation her mother worked for. When a sense of moral righteousness steers Sam off target while on her latest mission she finds herself blacklisted and hunted by those she worked for. The film thrives upon how well it delivers multiple fight sequences, the choreography for the massive third act library fight scene is a particularly inspired piece of stunt work. The score for the film is one of my favourite things about it; it has a nice rebellious energy that really spirits into these big action pieces. I found that the soundtrack had a nice vintage homage that matched up to the aesthetic of the film.

The best performance came from Carla Gugino, Angela Bassett and Michelle Yeoh, who played Madeleine, Anna May and Florence respectively. These three are impossible to separate in relation to one another, what you get here is a trio of characters who are interlaced in their performances. I loved seeing these 'librarians' confer and debate amongst one another to maintain their munitions front; this was one of the most entertaining aspects of the Gunpowder Milkshake 'world'. Gugino was the kind-hearted librarian, she was very empathic and folded many of the characters into shelter. Bassett was the bold leader of the trio who fiercely represented and defended the library and those within. Yeoh was the rational and highly intelligent librarian with a killer edge in how she engaged with opponents. These three actresses played strongly to the lack of realism in this feature and managed to make a really engaging trio.

This was a film that wanted to be something new and unique but really just across as something bizarre and corny. Gunpowder Milkshake really has quite weak world-building that doesn't really explain well how things connect; locations like the library, the hospital and the diner exist and entities like the Firm and McAlester's gang but none of these are linked well together. The film feels more like an aesthetic piece; trying to capture the spectacle of new action epics like Atomic Blonde or John Wick but falling woefully short with a confusing narrative. There is a clear love letter here to 50s/60s aesthetics with locations like the diner or the bowling alley featured prominently while the entire film is pitched to a very film-noir, Sin City-like tone. It is such a jagged thing hearing this very corny, over the top dialogue peered with a tone that doesn't really blend well into a lot of very modern visuals. There is an idea here that is undeniably creative but fails to actually meet its ambitions. The story around Sam being abandoned by Scarlet is sloppily delivered and there is no surprise when Scarlet is introduced back into Sam's life and the tension between the pair evaporates in no time at all. As a protagonist Sam is hard to like from an audience perspective; she kills an unarmed defenceless thug at one point and by killing Emily's father you struggle to really accept the film pitching her as a heroic figure by the end of the feature. The pacing is extremely slow for an action film, the film is terrified of showing action in its first act and then proceeds to open the flood gates to multiple long action sequences that needed to be cut up a bit more. The cinematography and editing paired together mean this isn't the most visually appealing film; the shots are very blocky and the cuts are only slowing the pacing further.

Karen Gillan, who played Sam, shows little range as this particular protagonist; her stoic closed off demeanour fails to evolve from the beginning through to the end of the film. Lena Headey, who played Scarlet, matches Gillan with a very emotionless role; this is a character who you do not really believe she has remorse for leaving her on-screen daughter behind. Paul Giamatti, who played Nathan, is a very reedy businessman character that Giamatti doesn't put a lot into; his expressions of concern or frustration had no impact because he didn't push much into those moments. Ralph Ineson, who played Jim McAlester, is your typical baritone gang boss antagonist; Ineson's grating attempts at intimidation and weird feminist speech in the final act make this a hard role to watch. Michael Smiley, who played Dr. Ricky, is a weird minor antagonist; watching Smiley huff into a laughing gas mask for half of his scenes made me cringe. Chloe Coleman, who played Emily, is still a bit young to have developed much range; seeing Coleman quietly dish out the moral conscience of the film means those messages are never strongly delivered.

This is probably going to be the corniest film boasting the worst dialogue that I'll see all year. I would give Gunpowder Milkshake a 2/10.