How to Blow Up a Pipeline (film)

How to Blow Up a Pipeline is a 2022 environmentalist action film directed by Daniel Goldhaber, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ariela Barer and Jordan Sjol.[2] It relies on ideas advanced in Andreas Malm's 2021 book of the same name, published by Verso Books.[2][3] It stars Barer, Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Jake Weary and Irene Bedard.[2]

Ariela Barer attends a 2023 screening of the film in Brooklyn, New York

How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDaniel Goldhaber
Written by
Based onHow to Blow Up a Pipeline
by Andreas Malm
Produced by
  • Isa Mazzei
  • Daniel Goldhaber
  • Ariela Barer
  • Adam Wyatt Tate
  • David Grove Churchill Viste
  • Alex Black
  • Alex Hughes
Starring
CinematographyTehillah De Castro
Edited byDaniel Garber
Music byGavin Brivik
Production
companies
  • Chrono
  • Lyrical Media
  • Spacemaker
Distributed byNeon
Release dates
  • September 10, 2022 (2022-09-10) (TIFF)
  • April 7, 2023 (2023-04-07) (United States)
Running time
104 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Malm's book is a work of nonfiction that uses a history of social justice movements to argue that property destruction should be considered a valid tactic in the pursuit of environmental justice.[4] The film, set primarily in West Texas, revolves around a group of eight young people who decide to blow up an oil pipeline in two key locations.[2] It was released in the United States on April 7, 2023.[5]

Plot

A group of young people from different backgrounds try to prevent the development of a pipeline by resorting to sabotage. The film includes flashbacks to show how each character became interested in blowing up a pipeline, and their backgrounds and motivations are so varied that Washington City Paper called the film "much more intense, combustible version of The Breakfast Club."[6]

Theo and Xochitl grew up in Long Beach, California in an area with toxic pollution. When Xochitl’s mother dies and Theo gets diagnosed with leukemia, the pair mobilizes. Alisha, Theo’s girlfriend, works at a soup kitchen and is wary of the plan but reluctantly agrees to join Theo on the trip to Texas. Xochitl recruits Michael, a Native American in the Dakotas who regularly harasses oil rig workers and regularly posted on social media about making homemade bombs.[7] Shawn, one of Xochitl's university classmates in Chicago, becomes involved after connecting with Xochitl at a divestment student meetup about the need for radical change.[7] He goes to West Texas to work on a documentary and meets Dwayne, a property owner who is angry about the government seizing his land under the eminent domain clause. Shawn comes back to Dwayne's house at night, to ask him if he could locate the pipeline and help the group blow it up.

The group plans to strap homemade explosives to a West Texas oil pipeline in order to expose the industry’s fragility.[8]

Cast

Release

The film premiered in the Platform Prize program at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022.[9][10] After its premiere, NEON acquired the North American distribution rights, intending to release it theatrically.[11][12] It was released in the United States on April 7, 2023.[5]

Reception

The New York Times called the film a "cultural landmark" for its uniquely sympathetic portrayal of ecoterrorism.[8] It is not an instruction manual but "a way to illuminate genuine moral objections," writes the Washington City Paper.[6]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 98%, based on 56 critic reviews with an average rating of 8.0/10. Its critical consensus reads, "An explosive adaptation of Andreas Malm's treatise, How to Blow Up a Pipeline delivers a high-stakes eco-thriller ignited by riveting and complex antiheroes."[13] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 84 out of 100, based on 5 reviews indicating "universal acclaim".[14]

References
  1. "How to Blow Up a Pipeline". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  2. Kuplowsky, Peter. "How to Blow Up a Pipeline". Archived from the original on August 14, 2022. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  3. Malm, Andreas (January 5, 2021). How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Live in a World on Fire. ISBN 9781839760259. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  4. Kunkel, Benjamin (May 26, 2021). "The Climate Case for Property Destruction". The New Republic. Archived from the original on September 13, 2021. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  5. Lattanzaio, Ryan (March 2, 2023). "'How to Blow Up a Pipeline' Trailer: Neon's Environmental Thriller Is Off the Rails". Indiewire. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  6. Zilberman, Alan (April 5, 2023). "See a Climate Crisis Thriller in How to Blow Up a Pipeline - WCP". Washington City Paper. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  7. Zilberman, Alan (April 5, 2023). "See a Climate Crisis Thriller in How to Blow Up a Pipeline - WCP". Washington City Paper. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  8. Baker, Peter C. (April 5, 2023). "Will We Call Them Terrorists?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  9. Vlessing, Etan (August 3, 2022). "Toronto Film Festival: Emily Bronte Movie 'Emily' to Open Platform Competition". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on August 26, 2022. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  10. Kay, Jeremy (August 3, 2022). "Frances O'Connor's 'Emily' to open TIFF Platform alongside films from Maïmouna Doucouré, Rima Das". Archived from the original on August 5, 2022. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  11. Ravindran, Manori (September 13, 2022). "Neon Buys TIFF Environmental Thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on September 13, 2022. Retrieved September 13, 2022.
  12. Ritman, Alex (September 13, 2022). "TIFF: Neon Acquires Eco-Terrorist Thriller 'How to Blow Up a Pipeline'". Retrieved February 3, 2023.
  13. "How to Blow Up a Pipeline". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on March 4, 2023. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  14. "How to Blow Up a Pipeline". Metacritic. Archived from the original on March 4, 2023. Retrieved April 2, 2023.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.