‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ Review: Rage Against the Machine

Many films are immediately recognizable as highly topical, but few feel drawn into the current social climate as excitingly as How to blow up a pipeline. Based on Andreas Malm’s controversial manifesto from last year, which advocated violent sabotage as the only viable method to effectively combat climate change, director Daniel Goldhaber’s fictionalized adaptation brings the “how” back to the book’s title by excitingly dramatizing, what these actions could and could probably look like.

Goldhaber frantically drops us into the middle of a conspiracy already underway in which a ragtag group of climate activists from across the country and diverse backgrounds are conspiring to blow up an oil pipeline in west Texas. Xochitl (Ariela Barer), introduced in an opening scene in which she sabotages a parked car while leaving a note under the windshield explaining why, is their de facto leader. From there, How to blow up a pipeline gradually introduces us to each member of the group through flashbacks interspersed with today’s plot.

But the filmmakers obviously don’t want to dissipate the driving momentum of the primary narrative, so these origin stories are kept short. through How to blow up a pipelineGoldhaber and co-authors Barer and Jordan Sjol give us just enough to fully understand who these individuals are and the often deeply personal reasons behind their radicalization.

For one, Xochitl’s sister Theo (Sasha Lane) dies from an illness brought on by exposure to radioactive environments as a child, while an elderly Texan native named Dwayne (Jake Weary) is embroiled in a fruitless legal battle with the government over the prevent Pipeline from traversing his property.) And the actors’ believably lived-in performances ensure their characters are never reduced to standard types, from the demolitions expert played by Forrest Goodluck to the rollicking young couple played by Kristine Froseth and Lukas Gage .

Goldhaber helped build an incredibly effective tensioning machine How to blow up a pipeline, shot on warm, grainy 16mm film and set to a stirring electronic score by Gavin Brivik. As the group’s plan crosses the point of no return, the film effectively melds its intimate style with the clichés of a full-scale action film, like that moment when two pipeline workers show up at just the wrong moment, or a late twist that throws one of the motivations of character in question. There’s even a bit of Henri-Georges Clouzot The wages of fear– and by extension William Friedkins wizard– in two unbearably terrifying sequences in which the crew carefully moves their DIY bomb to its detonation site.

Eventually, How to blow up a pipeline works as well as it does because of the compelling call-to-action that underlies each moment. Whether the actions of the characters in the film are “right” or “wrong” is immaterial; They are understood here as the only pragmatic ways for the characters to achieve a livable future in a world ruled by corrupt institutions bent on destroying the planet for selfish capitalist gain. Right up to its heartbreaking finale, Goldhaber’s live-wire extravaganza has positioned itself vigorously as cinematic anti-machine rage of the most urgently provocative kind.