How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Film Review
Don’t let the title fool you – How to Blow Up a Pipeline sounds like an instruction manual, but it is actually a gripping environmental thriller.
The film essentially does what it says on the tin – it follows a ragtag bunch of individuals as they make homemade bombs and blow up an oil pipeline in two places in West Texas in an act of eco-terrorism.
Daniel Goldhaber drops us straight into the action, with the eight-piece crew arriving in Texas to get started on their ‘project’. There’s no preamble and no introduction to these characters. Over the course of the film, there are flashbacks to give us a little backstory for each person or couple. It begins with college friends Xochitl (Ariela Barer) and Shawn (Marcus Scribner) and then Xochitl’s home friend Theo (the excellent Sasha Lane) and her girlfriend Alisha (Jayme Lawson) soon come on board.
Each person has a unique reason for signing up and it was interesting learning what everyone brought to the table as it’s a seriously random mix of people. The unusual ensemble made me think of heist movies. Michael (Forrest Goodluck) was recruited for his bomb-making skills, Dwayne (Jake Weary) for his knowledge of the land and Logan (Lukas Gage) and Rowan (Kristine Froseth) because they aren’t afraid of getting arrested in the name of environmental justice.
I liked the way this information was drip-fed to us bit by bit over the course of the movie and how the puzzle pieces slowly connected together to paint a full picture. These flashbacks usually happen abruptly at a really pivotal moment in the tense present-day narrative. It’s almost like mini cliffhangers as you have to wait until after the flashback to find out what happened.
Goldhaber really doesn’t hang about and the film has a propulsive energy which is reinforced by a throbbing, pulsating score. What they’re doing is super dangerous – they could blow themselves up or get caught – so they have to be very careful and follow each meticulously planned step to the letter. But there are some unexpected problems along the way and it is very intense watching them try to pull it off.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline, based on Andreas Malm’s manifesto of the same name, is a taut, tense and gripping thriller that examines the fascinating subject of eco-terrorism.
In cinemas from Friday 21st April