OUT 17 SEPTEMBER

Although the opening of the film features a man being shot point blank in the head, Gunpowder Milkshake isn’t the bloody massacre you might expect. The story follows Sam (Karen Gillan), the star hitwoman in a murky ‘deep-state’ corporation named The Firm, who inadvertently sparks off a gang war against a small army of bloodthirsty, armed-to-the-teeth maniacs. It’s partly a comedy, partly a tear-jerker about a mum and daughter torn apart by decades of bloodshed. But mostly, it’s a highvelocity, hyper-stylised bullet ballet.

Much of the film plays like a straight-from-the-page adaptation of a gritty graphic novel. Take, for example, the neon-lit, ’50s-style diner that serves as neutral territory for various spies and killers, or the magical library/assassins’ lair where most of the reckless gunplay ensues. The stylistic flourishes are all-consuming. It is always raining. A hot pink strobe light is always flashing somewhere, and everyone is dressed in impeccably tailored, retro-inspired outfits.

Yet the story was conceived whole cloth by writer/director Navot

Papushado (Big Bad Wolves), with co-writer Ehud Lavski. Papushado directs like a glossy, pop version of Dario Argento, from the restless camerawork and flagrant lighting-gel abuse to the elevated, stilted, nobodyactually-speaks-like-that dialogue. As over the top as all the blood and glitter might be, however, there is a very human story underneath. Gillan’s Sam is both a ruthless assassin and a tragic, unmoored figure, still smarting after