Gunpowder Milkshake
“Please, Hollywood, give me more films with women in their 40s and 50s kicking ass!”
Title: Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
Director: Navot Papushado 👨🏼🇮🇱
Writers: Navot Papushado 👨🏼🇮🇱 and Ehud Lavski 👨🏼🇮🇱
Reviewed by Carolyn Hinds 👩🏾🇧🇧🇨🇦♿️
Technical: 3/5
When it comes to action movies, all I ask for is solid fight choreography that reveals something about each of its characters. When those characters are women, even better. In Netflix’s new entry to the action category, Gunpowder Milkshake, I got all that and just a little bit more.
At a tender age of 12, Samantha (Freya Allan)’s life is turned upside down when her mother Scarlet (Lena Headey), an assassin, is forced to go on the run. Sam is left in the care of the crime syndicate her mother had worked for called The Firm, looked after by the organization’s leader, Nathan (Paul Giamatti). Eventually, Sam is given no other choice but to follow in her mother’s footsteps as an assassin for hire. Along the way, she finds help through old contacts like a trio of librarians played by Carla Gugino, Angela Bassett, and Michelle Yeoh whose characters supply weapons hidden in books.
If you’re familiar with the movies of any of the lead cast, such as Headey’s Dredd (2021), Karen Gillan’s portrayal of Nebula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Yeoh’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) or more recent Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018), you’ll know each of their aptitudes for exciting stunts. Watching their characters take on the henchmen sent to kill them is very enjoyable, albeit cringey in moments because the violence can get very graphic.
The production design and cinematography makes clear homage to action films that reach back to the ‘70s, seen in loose-fitting suits in shades of green, burgundy, and blue. Classic cars and firearms such as chrome-plated Desert Eagle handguns, or hatchets and bowie knives further add to the film’s stylized look. On top of that, director Navot Papushado doesn’t shy away from Tarantino-style blood and gore. Reminiscent of cult thrillers like the John Wick franchise, Pulp Fiction (1994), and HBO’s comic book drama Watchmen, no one can argue that Gunpowder Milkshake has a strong aesthetic.
Unfortunately, some unpolished scenes showcase its limitations. At times, the background looks like either a painted stage or green screen, as color grading fails to fully blend. The dialogue can be termed as just “fine”, but on the other hand, there’s no unnecessary and clunky exposition. All in all, Gunpowder Milkshake does what it sets out to do: It entertains with over-the-top action, no more, no less.
Gender: 5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES
It’s not often that an action film, particularly one written by two men, features female characters with full agency and autonomy. It’s even rarer for any of their conversations to be about their own relationships and experiences, and not how they connect to the men in their lives.
Somewhere among the flying bullets, knives, and axes, Gunpowder Milkshake follows a central story about three generations of women who reconnect and bond. Scarlet has to face the reality that her daughter Sam, now an adult played by Gillan, holds resentment towards her for leaving her behind. In addition, Bassett’s Anna May—one of the aforementioned librarians—makes no qualms about letting Scarlet know the hurt and betrayal she’d inflicted. But in the spirit of true sisterhood, when a fight is brought to them by Sam, who arrives seeking protection for herself and a young Emily (Chloe Colman) in tow, Anna May and the other two librarians Madeleine (Gugino) and Florence (Yeoh) don’t hesitate to provide it.
In less overt ways too, Gunpowder Milkshake avoids some of the genre’s more tiresome clichés. While women in action movies are all too often hypersexualized or killed off (or both), in Papushado’s film, straightforward threats by men like Nathan or Irish gangster Jim McAlester (Ralph Ineson) are free of rape-tinged innuendoes. Small details like this come as a welcome reprieve.
Race: 4.75/5
From the main cast to the supporting actors and stunt team, this film is both racially and ethnically diverse. In key roles we see Bassett who is African American, Yeoh who’s Malaysian Chinese, and Coleman who is biracial.
The characters of color avoid tropes; for example, it would’ve been easy to have Florence use martial arts, especially given Yeoh’s years of training. But stunt coordinator Laurent Demianoff gives her an original style that uses weapons of convenience, like chains. Meanwhile, the film’s gangsters run the gamut of Black, white, and Asian actors across a multitude of ethnicities. The varying skin tones and body shapes makes it such that no one feels like a caricature. They’re just there to fight. And in a memorable sequence that takes place in the library, where a man goes up against Headey and Gillan, my eyes were riveted on the actor’s lush and beautiful beard. Apparently, diversity applies to facial manes as well.
Bonus for Age: +0.75
A huge shout out to Papushado for this cast and the ensuing joy of seeing Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, and Lena Headey in a film together. Please, Hollywood, give me more films with women in their 40s and 50s kicking ass and not taking names!
Bonus for LGBTQ: +0.00
Madeleine and Florence share intimate and affectionate looks and touches, giving an impression that the two librarians could be in a romantic relationship. This applies to Scarlet and Anna May, too, and the actors had even filmed an embrace that eventually got cut, which is unfortunate.
Papushado tells Den of Geek that there was “definitely something” between the two couples, but it would’ve been a bonus to have all this subtext confirmed instead of wallowing in Hollywood’s penchant for queercoding, seen in other nudge-wink scenarios like Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) or Ocean’s 8 (2018). If these characters are queer, the film should just say so. Would they have been so coy in portraying straight romances?
Mediaversity Grade: A- 4.50/5
Gunpowder Milkshake isn’t a perfect film but women are given the chance to shine, which is more than can be said for most other films in this genre. With the announcement of a sequel at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, opportunity arises for more background on these fascinating women, the connections between them, and how they came to be in this life. Maybe we’ll even get to see them take revenge on The Firm, once and for all. When that happens I’ll be right here waiting—milkshake in hand.
Like Gunpowder Milkshake? Try these other titles with cartoonish violence.
Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (2019)
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)