There’s a purposeful lack of characterization in How to Blow Up a Pipeline because the story is built off of shared passion and mutual frustration between a team of amateur environmental activists/eco-terrorists who are tired of waiting for a difference to be made.  They’ve been pushed to their limits after being promised that a change is approaching.  How to Blow Up a Pipeline is a very angry movie, and it’s also one of the best of the year so far.

Following a jumpy timeline that chronicles the team’s plan to sabotage an integral pipeline in West Texas as well as brief flashbacks recapping what motivated each member to take their own individual stand, How to Blow Up a Pipeline consistently throttles the audience through conflicting emotions.  On one hand, movie goers can recognize that the meticulously calculated plan that’s hatching on screen is dangerous and illegal and, in no way, is the film trying to convince you otherwise.  On the other hand, like 2005’s V for Vendetta, the movie brilliantly juxtaposes why an extreme decision involving destruction is considered during desperate and dire times.  By the credit crawl, the dramatic thriller doesn’t offer easy, if any, answers – bravely leaving the audience with the final say.

With his sophomore feature, Cam director Daniel Goldhaber exhibits a fine delicacy with pace and patience, along with the help of editor Daniel Garber.  Whether a scene is challenging an audience’s integrity and morals or showing the methodical creation of an explosive, Goldhaber and Garber realize the importance of meditative, concentrated storytelling.  The attention to these details allow the audience to soak up every strain and keep up with the filmmakers.  The script (adapted from Andreas Maim’s book of the same name, and written by Goldhaber, Jordan Sjol, and star Ariela Barer) is blunt, but never heavy-handed. The writing is more confrontational than anything, giving the raw emotion behind the words genuine feeling as more stakes are explained and mishaps occur.

There’s not much else to say.  A true testament to how speechless and breathless How to Blow Up a Pipeline leaves its viewers.

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Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie