Film Review: GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE (2021): An Addictive Action Film Dessert

Gunpowder Milkshake Review

Gunpowder Milkshake (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Navot Papushado, and starring Karen Gillian, Lena Headey, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, Chloe Coleman, Paul Giamatti, Joanna Bobin, Freya Allan, Ed Birch, Ralph Ineson, Adam Nagaitis, Angela Bassett, David Zimmerschied, Samuel Anderson, Michael Smiley, Mai Duong Kieu, Jack Bandeira, Ivan Kaye and David Burnell IV.

Navot Papushado’s new film, Gunpowder Milkshake, is a movie that should go down in history as a true game changer. For years, people have wanted to see a Quentin Tarantino-type film with female leads that is clever, quirky and action-packed. Now, the wait is over with this terrifically entertaining film that gives 1990’s action pictures such as True Romance, Pulp Fiction, and Grosse Pointe Blank a run for their money. That’s not to say there haven’t been good action/comedy movies since the 1990’s but I haven’t seen anything this entertaining in quite some time.

Karen Gillian stars as Sam, an assassin whose mother Scarlet (Lena Headey) left her when she was a young girl. Sam works for “The Firm.” Nathan (Paul Giamatti) is Sam’s boss and “The Firm” means business. The film’s plot is set in to motion when Sam kills the father of a young girl named Emily (scene stealer Chloe Coleman). Sam, having been abandoned by her own mother, doesn’t want to leave Emily behind and thus sets out to protect her. Sam decides to go AWOL from the Firm and the movie takes the viewer on an adventure as Sam is reunited with Scarlet and gunshots are fired left and right all the way through the entire movie as they fight to keep Emily (and themselves) safe.

Joining the action at given intervals are three librarians: Florence (Michelle Yeoh), Anna May (Angela Bassett) and Madeleine (Carla Gugino). Sam needs some weapons to fight back when she is pursued by Nathan’s goons and the librarians have them handily stocked. Guns are stored in classic novel book covers and, at one point, when Sam needs some ammo, she’s directed to the Self-Help section of the library to get what she needs. A great scene has Madeleine shooting off bad guys set to the beat of the Janis Joplin song, “Piece of My Heart.”

There are some scenes between Sam and Scarlet that are very touching as the two re-establish their relationship after the mother Scarlet’s absence which has spanned well over a decade. When Scarlet comes to save her daughter who is about to be beaten up or killed, she comes at the goons packing some guns and firing away. It’s a true crowd-pleasing moment to be sure.

The friendship between Sam and Emily gives the film momentum especially in a scene set in a parking garage as Sam enlists Emily to drive a car as the bad guys are in hot pursuit. They try to hide from the killers and are forced to use their wits to outsmart them. Coleman has tremendous charm as she reminds characters that she’s not eight years-old but eight years-old and three quarters. Gillian and Coleman play off each other with great energy that keeps the movie moving at a fast pace.

Michelle Yeoh and Angela Bassett are old pros and their turns here are both funny and energetic with Carla Gugino more than holding her own beside them as the third librarian. As the film reaches its action-packed climax in a diner, watching Yeoh and Bassett kick bad guys’ butts is tremendously fun and you can’t help but cheer them on the whole entire sequence towards the end.

Paul Giamatti is actually, surprisingly, good here. You never expect Giamatti to be bad in a film but he’s played so many nice guys in the past that it was an interesting change of pace for him to play the key bad guy here. You’ll cheer when Emily shows up on his doorstep to “sell him cookies.”

All this would not be possible without skillful direction and a terrific lead performance. We get both here with Karen Gillian coming into stardom in a movie that is expertly crafted and designed to be fun. There are times the film gets too heavy handed with gruesome shoot-outs and scenes where you may want to look away but that comes with the turf.

See Gunpowder Milkshake and have a fun, action-packed time with some truly interesting women action heroes. While not on the level of Tarantino’s pictures, it’s still strikingly original in its own right. Check it out ASAP.

Rating: 7/10

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