How to Blow Up a Pipeline

Directed by Daniel Goldhaber, How to Blow Up a Pipeline follows eight figures, including Ariela Barer’s Xochitl and Sasha Lane’s Theo, as they collaborate to sabotage and disrupt a Texas-based pipeline. Filmmaker Goldhaber, armed with a script written with Barer and Jordan Sjol, delivers an exceedingly (and sometimes excessively) gritty piece of work that gets off to an impressively promising start, as Goldhaber kicks the proceedings off with a stirring pre-credits stretch that effectively establishes the various characters and the precarious scenario in which they’re placing themselves – with the compelling atmosphere heightened by Gavin Brivik’s intense score and Tehillah De Castro’s appropriately urgent visuals. It’s clear, then, that How to Blow Up a Pipeline’s overall impact is affected by a midsection that isn’t quite as consistent or enthralling as one might’ve hoped, with the hit-and-miss vibe compounded by an assortment of relatively well developed yet far from memorable central protagonists (ie the viewer is never quite rooting for these people to the degree Goldhaber has undoubtedly intended). The inclusion of several admittedly suspenseful sequences (eg the gang attempts to strap a bomb to the title pipeline) proves effective, ultimately, at smoothing over the narrative’s less-than-enthralling stretches, which, when coupled with a satisfying final third, cements How to Blow Up a Pipeline‘s place as a stirring endeavor that successfully marries social commentary with the thriller genre.

*** out of ****