Navot Papushado
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
Taking a page from John Wick (to give you an idea of how much that series is going on to inspire other movies, this is the second one this week I’ve watched that is borrowing elements while searching for its own identity), there is also a diner (a riff on the Continental hotel) where the waitresses search and strip patrons of whatever guns they are packing.
Parts of Gunpowder Milkshake are reminiscent of the John Wick universe, but it’s no rip-off.
Some of those recognizable elements bring to mind the “John Wick” series, in which a trained assassin navigates between coordinated attacks and a neutral ground where shots shouldn’t be fired—the Diner in “Gunpowder Milkshake” is very similar to the Continental in those Keanu Reeves movies.
Director Navot Papushado (“Big Bad Wolves”) dives into “Kill Bill” and “John Wick“ territory, for a stylized action flick that reminds us in the immortal words of James Brown, “This is a man’s world.”
There are definite overtones of the vast, powerful underworld reminiscent of the John Wick series.
For most viewers, the biggest touchstone for “Gunpowder Milkshake” is the “John Wick” series.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
influenced Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
Characters Visuals Music
Their talents aren’t wasted, but the looney tune presentation, and bumbling, cartoonish henchmen borrowed from the set of “Kill Bill” leaves plenty to be desired.
Director Navot Papushado (“Big Bad Wolves”) dives into “Kill Bill” and “John Wick“ territory, for a stylized action flick that reminds us in the immortal words of James Brown, “This is a man’s world.”
Just a few scenes prior, the whistling spaghetti-western vibe of Frank Ilfman’s score emphasized how much a fight in an under-illuminated bowling alley wanted to be a Kill Bill set piece.
The film obviously takes cues from the director’s biggest films, with moments that recall both 1994’s “Pulp Fiction” and 2003’s “Kill Bill.”
So much personality goes into every action sequence, the brutality mixing with humor ala Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill.
Gillan’s Sam is an assassin so violently badass and invincible that she makes Uma Thurman in the “Kill Bill” films look like Eleanor Roosevelt.
Léon: The Professional (1994)
Directed by Luc Besson
influenced Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
Characters Themes Plot
Other examples include “Hotel Artemis” and “Terminal,” and to that growing list we can now add GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE , a highly stylized and very entertaining movie (that also borrows from 1994’s “Leon: The Professional”).
If Emily’s bold declaration, “I’m her apprentice,” calls to mind Natalie Portman in Luc Besson’s Leon: The Professional , that’s far from the film’s most brazen borrowing.
Also, the film’s attempt to evoke the adult-child bonding of Luc Besson’s “The Professional” does not even come close.
Giamatti is perfect as the slimy crime boss, and Chloe Coleman is rather adorable as Sam’s young sidekick who, like Natalie Portman in “The Professional,” yearns to be an apprentice.
Most in the genre owe something to his earlier work, such as La Femme Nikita and The Professional, and I’ll admit these are among my all-time favorites.
It’s a stylish riff on a film like Leon: The Professional , where Karen Gillian plays Sam, an assassin that becomes saddled with protecting a little girl whose father was one of her targets.
You Were Never Really Here (2017)
Directed by Lynne Ramsay
influenced by Big Bad Wolves (2013)
Themes
Not for the faint of heart, Ramsay's story of young girls stolen by powerful men nods to other recent powerful works with similar themes, like the 2011 Australian film Sleeping Beauty or the 2013 Israeli thriller Big Bad Wolves, minus their fairy-tale symbolism.
Not for the faint of heart, Ramsay’s story of young girls abducted by powerful men nods to other recent works with similar themes, such as the 2011 Australian film Sleeping Beauty, or the 2013 Israeli thriller Big Bad Wolves (minus their fairy tale symbolism).
Atomic Blonde (2017)
Directed by David Leitch
influenced Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
Visuals Plot Themes
The kineticism of his cinematography is reminiscent of Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman and the color palette has much in common with David Leitch’s Atomic Blonde , but (unlike the film’s plot) the visual style of Gunpowder Milkshake is too dynamic, rich, and specific to feel derivative.
Written and directed by Navot Papushado and co-written by Ehud Lavski, the film is like John Wick combined with Atomic Blonde and Hotel Artemis .
It’s here that Gunpowder ‘s bloody and comedic temperament truly livens Papushado’s script – co-written with Ehud Lavski – with an almost old school Jackie Chan vehicle approach to the material, rather than the Atomic Blonde -ness we are expecting.
Featuring Karen Gillan in a genuinely butt-kicking role, Papushado’s film joins a growing sub-genre of all-female action outings (see: “Atomic Blonde,” “The 355,” the just-announced “Alice, Darling,” and many more), but its winking sense of humor seems primed to help it stand out.
In recent years, women-lead, sleekly choreographed, over-the-top, stylized bloody and violent action films have quickly been filling up its own sub-genre, from Atomic Blonde to Birds of Prey to Old Guard and arguably even the current moment’s much larger women-led franchise film Black Widow.
It’s a sequence that pulls its influences not from the sleek Atomic Blonde -style thriller Gunpowder Milkshake initially seems to aspiring towards but from an old-school Jackie Chan vehicle, where the ass-kicking is delivered with comedic flair.
Other examples include “Hotel Artemis” and “Terminal,” and to that growing list we can now add GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE , a highly stylized and very entertaining movie (that also borrows from 1994’s “Leon: The Professional”).
Written and directed by Navot Papushado and co-written by Ehud Lavski, the film is like John Wick combined with Atomic Blonde and Hotel Artemis .
It’s the type of production that evolved from “Blank” into a movie like Paul McGuigan’s “Lucky Number Slevin” and a crunchy look adopted more recently in Drew Pearce’s “Hotel Artemis.”
Yet there's a feeling we've seen everything else before, in quirky violent comedy-dramas like Smokin' Aces and, more recently, Hotel Artemis – or, even still in cinemas, Bob Odenkirk's John Wick-a-like Nobody.
The film obviously takes cues from the director’s biggest films, with moments that recall both 1994’s “Pulp Fiction” and 2003’s “Kill Bill.”
To quote Vincent Vega in “Pulp Fiction,” “That’s a pretty f---ing good milkshake.
The whole thing takes place in a deliberately retro, highly stylized urban milieu that is redolent of that “some time in the 20th century” vibe that you can find everywhere from Brazil (1985) to Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City (2005) to Streets of Fire (1984) to, well, John Wick (2014).
The whole thing takes place in a deliberately retro, highly stylized urban milieu that is redolent of that “some time in the 20th century” vibe that you can find everywhere from Brazil (1985) to Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City (2005) to Streets of Fire (1984) to, well, John Wick (2014).
It's Sin City meets John Wick but gender-flipped, except that the Kill Bill movies and Atomic Blonde have been there and done that.
The whole thing takes place in a deliberately retro, highly stylized urban milieu that is redolent of that “some time in the 20th century” vibe that you can find everywhere from Brazil (1985) to Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City (2005) to Streets of Fire (1984) to, well, John Wick (2014).
Perhaps the product of John Boorman and Lee Marvin’s 1967 film “Point Blank,” “Milkshake” places its trapped protagonist Sam (the MCU’s Karen Gillan) into a high-contrast, expressionistic, pulpy setting.
Doesn’t hurt that she has a kickass jacket and a retro-cool car with flip-up headlights to give her a Ryan Gosling in Drive vibe.
He apparently never got Coco Chanel’s memo to remove one piece before going out, and this movie, his first foray into action after building a career in horror, has something of the garish feel of Jennifer Aniston’s work outfit in Office Space.
“Gunpowder Milkshake” is the latest in a long line of action films about double-crossed hitmen on the run from their retainers, from “Le Samourai” to “Branded to Kill” to “In Bruges”; it’s also the latest attempt at a “John Wick” riff, and a riff of poliziotteschi movies, and a whole bunch of other things at the same time.
While the themes of “family” and “loyalty” are what made the overloaded “Fast & Furious” franchise a billion-dollar hit, a film like “Milkshake” limits the death and destruction by keeping the stakes lower and more personal.
If there were a recipe for Gunpowder Milkshake , it would probably involve John Wick aesthetic poured over an Ocean’s Eleven -level female ensemble, blended briskly and consumed with plenty of laughter, cheers, and patriarchy-smashing celebration.
Minutes after Sam’s arms are numbed by an injection the doctor gives her, the party turns into a Drunken Master -style fight, with Gillan spinning herself on a swivel chair, throwing her body around, and kicking serious ass.
That truth has been reflected across popular culture to various degrees of success, but has particularly begun to drive the world of action movies, from off-the-wall cult classics like Kill Bill and Tank Girl to newer blockbusters like Black Widow and Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) .
“Gunpowder Milkshake” is the latest in a long line of action films about double-crossed hitmen on the run from their retainers, from “Le Samourai” to “Branded to Kill” to “In Bruges”; it’s also the latest attempt at a “John Wick” riff, and a riff of poliziotteschi movies, and a whole bunch of other things at the same time.
For much as Keshales and Papushado’s masterful debut Rabies (2010) used a slasher frame and Coens-style ensemble chaos for its genre-bound commentary on the minefield of Israeli politics, this follow-up imports the twisted tropes of torture and revenge familiar from Korean films Save the Green Planet! and I Saw the Devil (with the odd hammer blow from OldBoy for good measure) to shine a light right in the face of beleaguered Israel’s questionable response to terror.