THE TRAILER
THE DIRECTOR
Navot Papushado
THE ACTORS
Adam Nagaitis, Lena Headey, Michelle Yeoh, Michael Smiley, Angela Bassett, Paul Giamatti, Carla Gugino, Chloe Coleman, Karen Gillan, Alph Ineson.
THE STORY
As a 12-year-old, Sam (Karen Gillan) was abandoned by her assassin mother, Scarlet (Lena Headey). A member of The Firm, her mother’s vicious criminal organization, Sam was raised by her mother. In the intervening 15 years, Sam has developed into a deadly assassin. Some of The Firm’s most hazardous messes are cleaned by her “gift.” Efficient and loyal at the same time, she’s the perfect combination. It’s up to Sam to decide whether to defend Emily, an 8-year-old child (Chloe Coleman). “The Librarians” is the story of Sam, a young woman on the run from the law (Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, and Carla Gugino). The firm and its henchmen are threatening to steal everything from these three generations of women. They must rely on each other, stand up to them, and raise hell against these henchmen!
RUNDOWN
“Gunpowder Milkshake,” directed by Navot Papushado, is half an action thriller and part mother-daughter drama. Even when a performer falters or a piece of speech sounds false, it doesn’t ruin the movie. The movie’s bright colors and gunshots may often overshadow its star-studded ensemble because of its eye-catching production design and style. You’d think it was impossible, given the murderer’s row of action movie superstars, yet here it is. In the absence of a strong screenplay, no amount of charm can make up for it. Michael Seresin, the film’s cinematographer, puts on quite a show, bathing the film’s violence in garish tones, color-coordinated sets, and lighting to make everything jump off the screen. If you know your bisexuality, you’ll appreciate the movie’s combat sequences, which take place in a brightly lit bowling alley and a children’s area of a library. Some of the movie’s duller parts are compensated for by these set pieces. However, the long-running length is made more bearable by these scenes.
Gunpowder Milkshake features a master assassin, navigating between planned attacks and a neutral place where bullets should not land – the Continental Diner looks quite like the Continental in Keanu Reeves’ “John Wick” films. In the same vein as Reeves, it seems that Gillian is developing a stoic loner with tight lips and a nasty attitude. Unusually uncharismatic, she comes across instead. I had to suspend my disbelief more in “Gunpowder Milkshake” than in “Wick.” While the idea of gun-toting librarians seems exciting, the women who play them never get to show off their abilities until a climactic battle. “Sleeping Beautyfairies “‘s wear red, blue, and green, and the librarians behave like dangerous godmothers, handing out bullets and firearms. She plays both a wide-eyed witness of this new brutal world and a clever kid eager to assist Sam.
There are significant parallels between Gunpowder Milkshake and Marvel’s “Black Widow.” As for feminisms, both films emphasize girl power, but only via violence. In these universes, women must be more deadly than males to succeed. A sort of patronizing simplicity robs our heroines of the right to battle with their peers. In both stories, there’s also a multigenerational element and a mother-daughter relationship. Because neither film spends much time on the consequences of turning young girls into murderers, their pain is only briefly considered as a price for becoming formidable murder machines in both films. Sadly, although both films aim to explore the female experience and briefly touch on delicate themes like parenting and family, they do so only on a superficial level in favor of poor combat sequences and awkward starring roles for their actresses.