Director Navot Papushado’s GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE is this year’s most aggressively okay film. This middle of the road offering leaves its audience satiated, yet fails to make that feeling long lasting. While it succeeds in giving Karen Gillan plenty of Movie Star Moments to launch the next Jane Wick-ian franchise, it’s utterly reductive of its male predecessor in its narrative components, animalistic-driven gravitas and highly-stylized aesthetic. Violently voluptuous yet vapid, its bold, bombastically brawny flexes don’t amount to much except for mild thrills in seeing the bare minimum achieved.
Similarly to JOHN WICK, screenwriters Papushado and Ehud Lavski keep their plot lean, but not clean enough to crystalize, falling prey to convenience and convolution far too frequently. Sam (Gillan) is a tough-as-nails assassin for a criminal agency run by a group of wealthy, elite men called The Firm. With her goth Carmen Sandiego-esque get-up of a black wide-brimmed hat, dark trench-coat and confident, laconic demeanor, she easily slides undetected into deadly, dangerous circumstances. Until she doesn’t. She slips up, accidentally killing the son of The Firm’s high-ranking member, Jim McAlister (Ralph Ineson), who, in turn, puts out a hit on her.
Around this same time, Sam’s tasked by her de-facto guardian/ handler Nathan (Paul Giamatti) to gather up funds stolen by The Firm’s accountant. She botches that too, in that she takes pity on the guy, but accidentally shoots him before he can get the stolen money to thugs who’ve kidnapped his precocious 8 ¾-year-old daughter Emily (Chloe Coleman). Thinking she can fix everyone’s conundrums, Sam sets out to rescue the young girl, kill the kidnappers and return the money to her employers before they notice she’s gone rogue. What ensues is a neon-lit journey into the underworld where figures from her past – both her estranged mother Scarlet (Lena Headey) and “aunties” Anna May (Angela Bassett), Florence (Michelle Yeoh) and Madeline (Carla Gugino) – factor into her future.
In order to move the story along, taking the characters from A to B to C, there are giant leaps in logic, leaving a few questions unanswered. The kidnappers turn on each other easily after one PULP FICTION-inspired mistake occurs, for little more than contrived purposes. It’s even less plausible that a hardened, seasoned professional like Sam would ever go off book because her feelings got in the way – for a stranger no less, even if she recognizes a bit of herself in the orphaned child’s plight. We go along with that initial leap out of curiosity to see where the story takes us next, but it’s at an exhausting cost to the narrative’s buoyancy. Later, Sam messes up by leading baddies to a safe house, when it’s clearly done just to have a battle in the ladies’ library base.
When the narrative ingeniously innovates beyond its inspirations and influences, the picture feels vibrant and effervescent. The opening sequence where we learn of Sam’s traumatic backstory with her soon-to-be-deadbeat mom is cleverly orchestrated through extreme close-ups, immersive sound and production design, and crisp edits. The cadence in which the ensemble speaks is Tarantino-lite, and its quirkier aspects deliver some chuckles. The parking lot pursuit is perfectly conceived and executed. Bursts of Robert Rodriguez-style energy occur when action and soundtrack combustably combine. The doctor’s office sequence where Sam is temporarily paralyzed and forced to battle her way through Nathan’s goon squad – who are also physically compromised in some way – lends hilarity and campy excitement, accompanied by a flamenco-style composition to heighten the mood. Haim Frank Ilfman’s score nimbly weaves themes through an eclectic sound, utilizing harpsicords, synths, symphonies and electric guitars.
However, when the filmmakers try too hard, directly lifting from films in the 87eleven canon (like JOHN WICK and ATOMIC BLONDE) is when the ingredients in their film quickly become stale goods. It’s a gorgeous homage that unfortunately lacks subtext and resonant sentiments, from its world-building devices (like the 50s diner and library emulating The Continental), to the way action is choreographed and captured (like in the Gutterball bowling alley scene with Michael Seresin’s cinematography generously favoring JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 and 3’s neon lighting). Sam being “downsized” by The Firm equates to John’s “ex-communicado” status. It revels in a multitude of slow-mo scenes that greatly undercut the powerful spectacle of the climactic one in the diner in the third act. Plus, the shootout in the library, which should act as this film’s most rousing set piece with the ladies exercising their brains and brawn in a glorious chorus of bullets and bloodshed, drags down the snappy pace.
Still, its superficial beauty and knockout cast keeps it from buckling under its own weighty ambitions. There’s always going to be a modicum of fun in seeing powerhouses like Gillan, Yeoh, Gugino and Bassett settle their grudges, despite the basic commentary being “chicks with guns are cool.” And if this opening chapter sets the stage for a larger world for these women to exact revenge, then so be it. It’s fine.
Grade: C
GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE releases on Netflix on July 14. It’s also playing theatrically in a limited engagement on 35mm at the New Beverly in Hollywood from July 14-18th.
Not too long ago, back in 2019, director Adam Robitel’s ESCAPE ROOM combined the intelligence of gameplay with inventive kills and ingenious set pieces driven by the character-forward spectacle. It was fun and provided the puzzle pieces for a burgeoning franchise – something along the lines of the crowd-pleasing FINAL DESTINATION series. His hugely entertaining sequel, ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS, arrives just in time to deliver Summer thrills. And it’s just as fun as the first.
In the gripping, edge-of-your-seat horror-actioner, Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) have walked away the winners of the deadly games but continue to deal with the psychological torture the rooms inflicted on them. However, they’ve figured out clues to the major mysterious organization puppetting the strings – Minos – and are determined to take them down. Their Sisyphean quest leads them to New York and unwittingly roped into yet another series of puzzle rooms with life-or-death stakes. This time the pair are matched against other themed-room champions, including Rachel (Holland Ellis), a clever empath with a rare disorder where she feels no pain.
At the recent virtual press day, I was able to speak with Robitel, Miller and Roden about the highlights of making a film that transcends the pop-culture trend that initially spawned this series.
Our interview with Adam Robitel:
Our interview with Logan Miller and Holland Roden:
ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS opens in theaters on July 16.
It may seem like a far out concept, but mimicking a person’s voice is a great way to hone one’s own. Yet this is what actor Eric Bauza has done since his youth – and continues to do best in his adulthood. His finely-tuned skill set got him in the door at Warner Brothers Animation to voice the wonderfully wacky cadre of characters who populate the world of Looney Tunes. Now, he’s lending his vocal talents to Mel Blanc’s creations: Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn and Elmer Fudd in SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY. And what he’s done is a slam dunk.
At the film’s recent virtual press day, I spoke with the affable actor about everything from what it was like to get into the mindset of these animated legends and rapping as the sensational stuttering pig.
Was voicing Marvin the Martin your entry point into the Looney Tunes universe? Did you have to show you can voice any and all of the Tunes when you’re up for that kind of gig?
“It’s a great question and a very interesting one for people that don’t know how the process is of how these characters get cast. We are now in the age of when a reboot, or a remake of a show used to be once every few years. But now we’re in this high demand for content, that they’re starting to overlap on one another. The creator of these voices was Mel Blanc in 1940 and pretty much, for me as fan, is the only person that can stake a claim over any of these characters. These characters are larger than life. Bugs Bunny is 81 years old. Of course someone’s gotta take over.
It’s a delight when we get to see them back on the big screen. As a fan, you know it’s not going to be the same as the original. But what I can appreciate of the people that take over – people like Jeff Bergman, who is playing Bugs in this feature film – you just know he’s a huge Looney Tunes fan as well. You can hear young Jeff, eating cereal in front of the TV on Saturday mornings, as did I, we all take that aspect of when and how we fell in love with these characters every time we step in front of that microphone in the booth. And we hope it resonates with the audience.
[Goes into Daffy Duck voice] Like when I do Daffy Duck’s voice, I see that you’re smiling. That’s how I know I’m doing my job right. [Returns to real voice] It’s like the audition process for any role. You get an email from your agent and they’re like, ‘Would you like to be Daffy Duck, or Marvin the Martian?’ Marvin was the first character I auditioned for and that was over 10 years ago now. It’s just one of those situations when you’re on show to show. Sometimes the roles switch. Sometimes they stay the same. But, again, it all depends on the storyteller and what they want out of the performance that any one of us can deliver.”
Where did start to find the essence of your Daffy Duck? Was it about tapping into your inner rage or frustrations? Same question about finding your Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn and Elmer Fudd.
“Again, I think why people love the Looney Tunes characters is because they’re so raw and unfiltered. They’re kind of like aspects of us. Bugs Bunny is that calm, cool collected person, who, until you mess with him, he will mess back with you. Daffy, of course, could represent [slips into Daffy voice] our greedy side, but also our crazy side – [Back to real voice] the part that we wanna go flying off the handle. Porky is the shy timid one. [Slips into Foghorn Leghorn voice] Foghorn’s the loud mouth. [Back to real voice] The reason why it’s easy to get into these characters is we’ve all experienced these moods and like characters you see on TV, we live through them. You get entertained by the rises and falls of these characters.”
Did the pandemic at all mess with the normal process of recording or was all your work already in the can when it hit?
“I think maybe 50% [was done] pre-pandemic and 50% during the pandemic, I was recording. I have a nice whisper room now. I have a booth here in the studio at home. Before that [Slips into Daffy Duck voice] I was recording Daffy Duck lines in my walk-in closet. [Returns to regular voice] So if you hear dogs barking, or lawnmowers, I apologize.”
Eric Bauza at the premiere of SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY. Courtesy of Warner Brothers Pictures.
There’s a scene Daffy and Porky share on a runaway train, did you just record that all in one shot with you switching back and forth between the two, or did you separate Daffy’s lines and Porky’s?
“We do it every way. The difference between feature film and TV is we have so much more time in the feature film world than we have in TV. TV’s gotta get done fast. But we tried to do it both ways: character by character and then they see what kind of chemistry we’ll have when I’m talking to myself, much like I do in Los Angeles traffic.”
I’m imagining how much flop sweat you’d have to wipe away if you’re recording them simultaneously for this scene.
“(laughs) I’d imagine it’s like game 7 in the finals. You’re your own teammates.”
One of the prevalent sentiments in this narrative is you can’t be great without working hard. How did you cultivate your skills? Were your family members supportive? Where were you when you first noticed you could make a career out of this?
“Well most of that realization comes when you’re sitting across from your family members at the dinner table and you start mimicking your family members. Or you’re in your high school making fun of your teachers with their own voices. Don’t do that kids. But it might lead to a career!
Support from family and friends is gonna always take you the longest way. The support from the amount of friends I’ve made here, the generosity and trust, when people believe in you and they see that you have a spark, or some crazy obsession with these guys, they know how obsessed and passionate I am about these characters. The support that you have from your family and the people you meet in the work field has taken me the furthest. I’m so thankful that.”
Daffy gets to coach the team in this. Did you have any coaches or mentors in this business that helped guide you?
“It all starts with Mel Blanc, the greatest of all time. He created these characters and developed their personalities over the span of 40 years. And then you have living legends like Jeff Bergman and Bob Bergen, Candi Milo, who plays Granny in this, and any other who’ve stepped into the shoes of Mel Blanc, I have them to thank as well.”
An animated LeBron James meets Daffy Duck (voiced by Eric Bauza) in SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY. Courtesy of Warner Brothers Pictures.
I can’t imagine it wasn’t an emotional experience for you, getting to say iconic lines from Daffy and Porky Pig for the first time. I don’t know if you thought about that in those terms. What was that like?
“Even talking with you now about it, it’s surreal. Watching it for the first time, it was like, ‘Oh yeah. I forgot. I’m in this.’ Again, these characters are larger than life. They were here before me and they’ll be here after I’m gone. It’s one of those passing of the torch – this is it right now. I’m just trying to preserve the characters for the next generation for the new legacy to come.”
What was your initial reaction hearing that you’d need to rap as Porky Pig? How did that come together?
“[Slips into Porky voice] Well, there’s of course the Notorious B.I.G. – Biggie Smalls. Murs is the person who ghostwrote the rap for Porky. [Returns to real voice] It was one of those moments in the film that pays homage to those Looney Tunes hip hop shirts in the 90’s. There’s something that’s so funny about how they fit into that world of hip-hop and rap. You just have to laugh. Was I intimidated? Sure. Anytime you have to say anything in these character voices, it’s always like walking a high-wire. Again, you have the support of the writers and the director right there with you. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
You’ve done a little bit of writing and a little bit of directing. Does any of that factor into your performance? Were you able to collaborate?
“Oh absolutely. Anytime you’re in the booth, Malcolm Lee was there. Spike Brandt, the animation director, was there early on. A writer or two, if we were lucky. And LeBron James. They all know what they need from the scene. Sometimes they don’t and that’s when they look to you and it’s like a dance and reciprocation. It’s about being open. You can have a plan in your head, but by the time you drive from your home to the studio, and you do the thing, it could get thrown out. You have to be malleable as a performer.”
Any pre-game rituals you do before going into the booth to record?
“A bag of chips, some root beer and hours of Looney Tunes. That’s all I need. That’s my version of the gym which is an awful example of the gym. [Slips into Bugs Bunny voice] But it sure is great for sounding like this guy.[Returns to real voice] If you have too much lip-smacking noise, or saliva, a green apple will take all that moisture out. And, of course, stay hydrated.”
What did you learn about yourself?
“I learned that anything’s possible. If I’m here talking to you about being in SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY, anything is possible, kids. Follow your dreams and don’t give up on yourself.”
SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY opens in theaters and begins streaming on HBOMax on July 16.
Screenwriter Eric Pearson was presented with a unique challenge writing what would become Natasha Romanoff’s (Scarlett Johansson) side-quest in BLACK WIDOW. He was tasked to create a narrative that would be thoroughly engaging and immersive while also not causing any ripple effect on the Marvel movies that featured Nat that came before this. In addition to that, it was going to be set in between two major points on the Avengers’ timeline, betwixt CIVIL WAR and INFINITY WAR.
In the superhero action-adventure, a figure from Natasha’s traumatic past comes back to haunt her and, in order to defeat him, she’s tasked with assembling her estranged, makeshift family. I was able to speak to the affable, talented screenwriter recently over the phone where we chatted about how he further crafted these indelible characters and upping their stakes.
For me as a woman, it felt like your villain Dreykov (Ray Winstone) had some very real world connections.
“He’s a real piece of shit too.“
Yes, thank you. Especially because his goal is to control women’s bodies and minds. How much of a challenge did he present to you in the writing? I’m sure you could probably pull from the news and see this happening with American lawmakers.
“The biggest challenge of that would be villain plot and stakes. Because we have this weird time period where, those of us who’ve seen AVENGERS: ENDGAME, know that Natasha Romanoff makes a personal sacrifice to save the universe. We know that she’s dead. We’re having this movie take place right after CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. Writing the villain plot, I knew that I couldn’t blow up the moon, because we’ve seen since then the moon’s there. Coming up with how to treat a villain thread that could potentially succeed and not be noticed in the timeline was the trickiest part.
It was a tricky thing to wrap my head around – and our head around as the whole team. But it kinda helped lead to this ultimate villain who’s a bit of a coward. He wants a lot of control but everything he does is from a place of fear and lack of self-confidence. He’s a bully. Natasha did a great job of making him know that when they’re able to finally confront each other.“
How precious is Marvel about what you pull from the comics?
“They’re not too precious with it. They always tend to have, when you come in, there are ideas there that are essentially images or moments from the comics or things they want to incorporate in there. The favorite ones will always be pushed, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get cut out. I remember Kevin [Feige] had one of our greatest jokes in pre-production for THOR RAGNAROK. It was Kevin’s idea and we all laughed about it, but it didn’t work and Kevin cut his own joke out.
In this one, we had a couple of lines that were very important the whole way through to make reference to something in the chase sequence in Budapest and ultimately it wasn’t working and we took it out. They’re not too rigid, but everybody has their favorite moments that they want to see brought to fruition.“
Did any of the writing change once cast members signed on, to better suit their own personalities? I know you were on-set, but I was also curious what your role was there.
“It definitely changes. When I came in, there was already this loose idea of a family structure. I was writing to that as David Harbour as the father figure and Rachel Weisz as the mother figure and Florence Pugh as the sister/ sibling. Cate Shortland made it a point for us to sit for a couple of days for rehearsal, which was pretty intense to be at the heavyweight table with the four of them; Scarlett, Florence, Rachel and David there. Each had their own ideas. I was a little freaked out. Everyone had just come in and it was us gathered for the first time ever and everyone was shouting out their own ideas and it became very overwhelming. But I think what Cate did was very smart. She essentially put me at the family dinner table with these four and I got their energy. They had suggestions and we’d work on them.
I remember Florence was talking about the scene and I said, ‘That’s the line that saves the whole thing.’ I told her afterword, ‘You just saved me so much time with one random question. This will really help in the climactic emotional moment for you and your parental figures. It changed a lot. They’re all so good at their jobs. I feel like I gave them a blueprint and then they helped me make it excellent on the page. And in the performance, they’d do it different than you don’t expect, which makes it even better.
As far as role on set, we had a pretty free set too. There will be improv sometimes. I feel like I’m the custodian of the story and of the document on set, because you want the actors to be able to do what they feel. Sometimes though they do omit something and it could be one word even, or the phrasing of a word – a past tense – might make a big difference. I feel like I’m guarding the whole story, very meekly and politely poking my head up if I hear something that’s going to affect the story as a whole.“
Rachel Weisz, Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh in BLACK WIDOW. Courtesy of Marvel Studios.
Was the dinner table scene one of the most daunting scenes to write, because there’s so much to balance there between the characters superficial and subconscious needs and have the humor come in and not undercut the drama?
“It was the 800 lb. gorilla I was most scared of. I knew it was gonna be massive. I think it has 9 pages and it not only has to be character dynamic, and humor, and some emotional conflict and reckoning of these characters, but also have some big points of exposition in there and some comic book science that has to be explained to the audience. Weirdly I was the most scared of it, but once we did those rehearsals over two days and I was able to wrangle everyone’s point and make it work without turning it into a 35 page scene. We also shot it fairly early – about a month into shooting. Once it was done and in the can, I was so relieved. I got to watch it and seeing them perform it, made it seem special.
I think besides that one, the ending was the most difficult one to write because there was so much to keep track of. We have different players on the field and different parts of the facility and different threats and countdowns. That was the hardest one, purely from a spatial map thing – of keeping track where everyone is, who knows what at what time, who is ahead of who, when does the reveal happen. That was the most challenging.
This may be a dumb story, but it was the day of the family dinner scene. Florence has this great emotional moment in it and she’s winding up and I had this big sneeze and I’m close. I literally clamped my hand over my mouth, but the sneeze forced itself out of my body in the weirdest noise I’ve ever heard. People in our video village had teeth marks in their arms trying to bite down from laughing. I made a sound that sounded like a bored donkey. I did not want to screw this up. Luckily they didn’t pick it up. Everyone in our tent did though.“
Was Don McLean’s “American Pie” always written in the script?
“The idea of playing music came from one of those rehearsals, even though it wasn’t ultimately at the dinner scene, from David Harbour. And then they were pitching random different songs that they could be singing and then suddenly these four impressive, intimidating actors all kind of started randomly singing that song. There was terror amongst all of us too; If this doesn’t work, it’s the cheesiest thing of all time. And if it does, it’s the greatest. So I had a genuine fear until I saw the first cut and I was like, ‘Oh. Okay. Great.’ It’s just one of those things that came out of the actual family dinner rehearsal.“
You were in the Marvel writing program and I was curious if there were lessons learned there you apply to all your writing?
“The way that work is done. I was very fortunate to get my first job in the Marvel Studios writer’s program. As a struggling writer, I was really bottoming out in credit card debt and it was my first job really doing what I wanted to do for a living. I arrived there after IRON MAN and INCREDIBLE HULK, but before AVENGERS. I remember people saying, ‘Superhero movies are going to be done at any moment.’ It was before the gold dust of AVENGERS opening at $200 million. But I was there to keep my head down and have fun telling stories. That’s what I found from everyone who works there; From the assistants all the way up to Kevin Feige, everyone was there saying, ‘We’re here to make movies. This should be fun. We need to work hard, but you can only take yourselves so seriously. There’s no reason to fight, or get angry. We’re just going to do our best job all the time.’ It was a work ethic thing, I suppose.
I think it was Nate Moore [VP of Production and Development at Marvel] (who produced WINTER SOLDIER, CIVIL WAR, BLACK PANTHER and ETERNALS), who said, ‘Once we’re in the third act, it’s a sprint for the finish.’ I think that was his way of saying everybody wants to do the biggest possible finale and it’s a Marvel movie, it’s gonna have a pretty fantastical finale regardless, so you should approach it doing the smallest version of fantastic as possible because otherwise it turns into an entire other movie that should be ending and you want everyone to have their big moment, you want to payoff the setup and you want people to leave happy – or, in the case of INFINITY WAR, leave devastated.“
BLACK WIDOW is now playing in cinemas and available through Disney+ Premiere Access.
