‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ Review: A Searing Eco-Thriller With Spirit and Ideas

Daniel Goldhaber’s Soderbergh-ian film ignites an urgent sense of activism through a stellar ensemble cast and sophisticated direction.

How to Blow up a Pipeline (Neon)
Chrono / Tehillah De Castro

There is romance in activism and fighting the good fight against the immoral powers of the establishment. In following a group of young environmentalist anarchists who yearn to make an impact and have their voices heard by any means necessary, Daniel Goldhaber’s searing eco-thriller “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” grasps this selfless passion at a visceral level.

Thankfully, romance doesn’t mean empty idealism in Goldhaber’s film, co-written by Goldhaber, Jorgan Sjol and Ariela Barer as a loose adaptation of Andreas Malm’s 2020 book. While the characters steering an act of terrorism around a Texan pipeline are all young and hotheaded, they aren’t out there to make some futile noise about climate change. There is a real point to the fatality-free disturbance these rightfully angry citizens of the world have carefully planned out, and what they have in mind is something a lot more significant than rattling a few local authorities in confusion to be ultimately shrugged off by them.

From the early moments of “How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” cinematographer Tehillah De Castro’s sepia-tinted grainy lens summons a Steven Soderbergh-ian vibe—think the style of “Erin Brockovich” and “Traffic”— and Goldhaber’s dynamic direction meets and amplifies the DP’s aesthetic ambitions. The mazy script, with a complex yet exciting structure guided by organic flashbacks, introduces us to each of the eight members of the collective along with their real-world struggles and connection to activism. There are those who live close to a plant and therefore are affected by the pollution it spreads. Among them are Sasha Lane’s terminally ill Theo and the grieving Xochitl (played by scribe Barer), who recently lost her mother to cancer caused by the same facility.

There is also the Native American activist Logan (an intense Forrest Goodluck of “The Revenant”) as the group’s agitator and bomb builder who is tired of his land’s white savior-ism, the comparably measured (and older) Dwayne (Jake Weary), picketer Shawn (Marcus Scribner) hungry to contribute more to the cause and Theo’s immensely caring and loyal lover Alisha (Jayme Lawson), who reluctantly but dedicatedly joins Theo. Rounding off the clan are Lukas Gage’s Logan and the terrific “Sharp Stick” actor Kristine Froseth’s Rowan, a vivacious couple and possible double agents with a secretive task the script deftly reveals in small drips.

It won’t be a stretch to call this group one of the best ensemble casts of the year already, each player brings their own irreplaceable gravity to the project. Even when they aren’t out assembling bombs (apparently all carefully advised by a counterterrorism expert who asked the filmmakers to remain anonymous), there is such a nail-biting thrill in watching them debate, sometimes in agreement and other times in fierce divergence. It is through these conversations that the characters (alongside the viewers) process and weigh the pros and cons of such acts of terrorism. Is what they’re doing ethical? Necessary? Actionable? Is it going to change things?

In contemplating these questions this critic’s mind briefly wandered off to Benedikt Erlingsson’s Icelandic picture “Woman At War,” a 2018 eco-thriller with similar queries at its core. Like Erlingsson, Goldhaber thankfully doesn’t seem as interested in the outcome (or whether these extreme methods are right or wrong), as he is in the process of meaningful contribution. If one is on the right side of history and burning to get their point across through diligent planning and action, shouldn’t that be what matters the most?

In that regard, Goldhaber captures the group’s process energetically and with a sense of humor when they take shelter in a remote shack with a handful of supplies and food, paying keen attention to all the nuts and bolts of their activities with a genuine sense of compassion. Thanks to an elaborate (but never overcomplicated script), he also remains equally interested in the group as multifaceted individuals, each with their own demons and battles to fight.

Elsewhere, costume designer Eunice Jera Lee’s work deserves a special shoutout in amplifying these personalities as scrappy and resourceful activists, all with their own distinctiveness and sense of self. Indeed, the portrayal of activists can go off the rails easily with overdone, hippy-ish styling choices. Through Lee’s keen eye we immediately buy these passionate fighters as plausible, flesh-and-blood contemporary people. Rounding off the film’s impressive crafts is Daniel Garber’s zippy and crystal-clear editing, as well as Gavin Brivik’s pulsating electronic score, dangerous and intimate in equal parts.

In its final moments, “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” proves it has the guts and lucidity to challenge even the most capitalist of minds, even if the film never blatantly endorses the extreme measures it depicts. In that, “Pipeline” is more a manifesto of ideas with a moral conscience squarely perched in the right place. Perhaps it sounds trite, but this is exactly the kind of explosive inspirational spirit we need the movies to ignite sometimes.

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