How To Blow Up A Pipeline (2023) Movie Review
How To Blow Up A Pipeline’s plot puts climate change and environmental activism at the center. A group of strangers with one common goal meet up in the middle of the desert. They have hatched a plan to blow up an oil pipeline as an act of defiance against the use of fossil fuels and the largely ignored consequences of climate change. As we watch them putting their plan into action, flashbacks give us each members’ back story. Each of them has had an encounter or series of incidents that has led them to take this extreme action.
Director Daniel Goldhaber doesn’t waste time on frivolity. The plot zips along, only giving you the most necessary information before skipping on to the next scene. That’s what keeps this one hour and forty-four minute drama from being bogged down. The ensemble cast works together beautifully. Ariela Barer anchors the group as, Xochitl, the de facto leader and organizer. Rowan (Kristine Froseth) and Logan (Lukas Gage) are loose cannons who seem to lack a reason for being there at all. There’s Theo (Sasha Lane) who finds out about a terminal illness and her girlfriend Alisha (Jayme Lawson) who is being supportive. Michael (Forrest Goodluck) has a serious set of grievances as a Native American whose people have been persecuted for years and Dwayne (Jake Weary) doesn’t want to lose his house to the corporate oil mongers. They’re a ragtag group that seem unlikely to succeed, despite their laser-like focus on their goal.
All members of the group give solid and compelling performances. And the writers (Ariela Barer, Jordan Sjol, and Goldhaber) don’t get too bogged down in the right and wrong of what the group is attempting. They mostly let the flashbacks do the loose justifying. They know that those who would strongly condemn the group’s actions are most likely not watching the movie in the first place. But they do give enough context to understand why this group of strangers is so dedicated.
How To Blow Up A Pipeline is effective because of the direct storyline that offers no extraneous moments whatsoever. A twist in the final thirty minutes keeps the movie from feeling too repetitive. And the ensemble cast works well together. It’s a simple movie that takes us on an environmental activism ride with a compelling ensemble in a classic David versus Goliath story.
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You are an environmental activist
2. You like mission-based movies
3. You like ensembles
