How to Blow Up a Pipeline: NZIFF Review

Propulsive, urgent and tense, eco-thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline's clever mix of a seemingly disparate group coming together to fight back against climate change and human drama works together to create a compellingly enjoyable edge of your seat drama that's well worth the time.

Reminiscent of Kelly Reichardt's Night Moves in terms of narrative, How to Blow Up a Pipeline principally works by building a picture of what's going on and deploying into a wider story - even if occasionally the use of flashbacks at particularly tense moments can frustrate.

Inspired by Andreas Malm's book of the same name, everyone in the drama has an axe to grind and is angry over one thing or another. From a grieving daughter whose mother died in climate change-led heatwave to a landowner angry at corporate requisition of his land for oil, everyone has an axe to grind here, but through subtle storytelling and a jigsaw puzzle of pieces, none of this is rushed or feels thrown together to propel a message through to its own ends.

While there are moments of heightened drama that seem to come at the right moments, director Daniel Goldhaber manages to pull together a realistic portrait of the disillusionment of youth and a society largely apathetic to general change.

Mostly sympathetic to the cause throughout, Goldhalber's compelling camera work and direction doesn't falter for being one-sided; whilst it's been compared to Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs for its narrative, How to Blow Up a Pipeline deserves to stand on its two feet and via its own accomplishments throughout.

Highly engaging, this edge of your seat drama tackles a subject in a humane and impressive way - it's easily one of the festival's best dramas.