Film Review: HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE (2022): Daniel Goldhaber’s Drama is Bold, Thought-Provoking and Riveting

How to Blow Up a Pipeline Review

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Daniel Goldhaber, written by Ariela Barer, Jordan Sjol and Daniel Goldhaber and starring Ariela Barer, Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Jake Weary, Irene Bedard, Olive Jane Lorraine, Melissa Chambers, Giancarlo Beltran, Mariel Martinez, Jasper Keen, Halle Charlton, Loren Anthony and Mary Kay Riley.

Filmmaker Daniel Goldhaber’s top notch drama, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, is an intense, powerful and probing dramatic movie with a premise that is not only compelling but thought-provoking as well. It is structured in a unique way going back and forth between current action and past scenarios that have led the scenes that are driving the plot of the film forward. While the film is well-cast, it is the film’s direction that makes it work so well. There’s not a moment in this film in which the viewer will not be wondering what will happen next.

Ariela Barer is featured in the movie and it’s a star-making performance. She portrays a woman named Xochitl who is, perhaps, the film’s most prominent character and the driving force behind the picture (Barer also co-wrote the movie). Xochitl doesn’t approve of big vehicles that eat a lot of gas and responds accordingly. She has her own personal reasons for wanting to associate with the group of people that get together in the movie to blow up a pipeline in Texas. Barer commands the audience’s attention throughout the whole entire film.

Sasha Lane plays Theo who we eventually learn has a form of cancer. Lane’s character is also a very pivotal piece of the puzzle the movie presents because of the suffering Theo has endured. Climate change is one of the motivating forces for the characters in Goldhaber’s drama but there is so much more going on here. The way all the lives of the characters intersect is masterfully conveyed on screen throughout. The film keeps developing its characters almost all the way up until the ending credits roll.

Jayme Lawson serves as a character named Alisha (she’s Theo’s significant other) who is creating an alibi for the plan the characters in the movie concoct when we meet her. There’s also a couple named Rowan (Kristine Froseth) and Logan (Lukas Gage) who are in trouble that is way over their heads when considering several scenarios the movie shows. For one, we learn Rowan is in trouble with the FBI and, for another, Logan gets shot during a key moment of the movie as things go down rather frighteningly. It becomes Rowan’s responsibility to try to remove the bullet herself.

Of course, the central premise of How to Blow Up a Pipeline begs the question regarding whether or not two wrongs make a right. Many characters of the film drive home the points the picture is making. Forrest Goodluck’s Michael is one of them and Marcus Scribner’s Shawn is another but it is Jake Weary’s landowner character, Dwayne, who is the most interesting of the male characters the movie presents to the audience as he tries to deal with the unfair developers who are complicating his family’s way of life. During the actual process of trying to blow up the pipeline, Dwayne places himself in a bar where he chit chats with a law enforcement agent to create his alibi.

A lot happens in the movie. We get a key character whose leg gets injured. The characters must try to help her while at the same time maintaining their goal to carry out the plan the way they intended. The fact that the character whose leg gets hurt must, at one point, drive is even more nerve wracking to watch. Tension builds as some authoritative characters show up before the plan is carried out creating so much tension in the plot which is further enhanced as the movie consistently goes back in time to tie together the threads of the very complex plot line.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline is a work of truly dedicated craftsmanship. You feel sympathy for the characters but the movie asks audiences a larger question than any of the characters can come to symbolize individually. What is the justification for doing something which is wrong? Does doing something one knows is wrong make it possible to correct the initial situation that is being brought into view which led to the wrong doing? Thankfully, the movie offers no easy answers to these complicated questions.

The performances are all solid. Froseth and Gage are particularly believable as the couple who nonchalantly try to engage in sexual activity in the interim while waiting to set off the device which will blow up the pipeline. This may, ultimately, be Barer’s movie in the grand scheme of things. As the plot is set into motion, she is one of two principal characters who hold the key to the whole plan possibly working out in some way, shape or form. Barer creates a complex character with fierce dedication and ambition whether it is criminal or not. To make us invested in the character of Xochitl, Barer adds layers to her character that are to be commended. Sasha Lane, as Theo, is equally strong.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline can open the viewers’ eyes to problems that exist now and could worsen in the future. It also works as a riveting thriller that doesn’t demand that one take sides. This picture presents a story that will captivate audiences from beginning to end. It’s one of the best pictures so far this year.

Rating: 9/10

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