Review: How To Blow Up a Pipeline

-

 


A group of environmental activists all from different backgrounds come together in west Texas to turn their activism into terrorism by blowing up an oil pipeline. There's college students Xochitl (Ariela Barer) and Shawn (Marcus Schribner) wanting to change the world. Burnouts Rowan and Logan (Kristine Forseth and Lukas Gage) Dewayne (Jake Weary), a man who lost his house to an oil corporation. Michael (Forrest Goodluck), a native man living on a reservation in North Dakota who knows all too well how much oil has changed that region. And a couple, Theo and Alisha (Sasha Lane and Jayme Lawson) who are dealing with a life changing illness as a result of these factories. 

I had been trying to get my hands on a screener for this earlier in the year with no avail, so finding out it's now available on Hulu made me so happy. I'm glad it's getting a platform where a lot of eyes will be on it. I have not read the book this loosely based on, so I cannot speak to any changes from text to film.

The film moves in and out of present time and introducing character's backstories. Mostly with success. It sometimes makes for some choppy editing but overall it worked well. The film leaves you on the edge of your seat. Not just with their mission, but with other secrets that pop up as well.

At just under 90 minutes, the film is quite brisk and probably could've used a little bit more time to flesh out some characters. I had a lot of questions about Michael, and even seeing the aftermath of a choice Xochitl and Theo make at one point would've been nice. But those are small nitpicks. This one is definitely worth your time.

Grade: B

Comments

  1. thevoid99October 21, 2023 at 8:44 PM

    Ah, so it was my Firefox browser that kept me from commenting. I do hope to see this real soon now that I have Hulu.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamOctober 23, 2023 at 7:58 AM

      First Chrome Incognito and now Firefox? What does Blogger want from us?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

My Favorite Movie Youtube Channels

-
Image
Starting around 2018, I started watching Youtube for more than just movie trailers or music videos whenever a new one dropped. Now I'm in full blown subscription mode and don't bat an eyelash at watching a Youtube video that's over an hour long. I watch Youtube for a few different categories of content, but one of them that I love most is movie/TV essays and commentary, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Below is a list of my favorite movie related Youtube channels. Let me know if you're familiar with them too, or if you have any you'd like to recommend to me.  Double Toasted - I'm honestly surprised this channel isn't bigger. I first came across Korey and Martin when they reviewed War for the Planet of the Apes a few months before it hit theaters and I thought they were hysterical. While their full length videos stream on Twitch, they often upload their movie reviews and commentary on youtube and they're always hilarious. They've...
Read more