#kristin lukas

[bookola-de]

Sehr spannend geschrieben, die Protagonisten sind herrlich beschrieben und manchmal ein wenig schräg. Was man eben so erwartet, von Uni-Mitarbeitern und StudentInnen, die sich mit Social-Media beschäftigen. Sehr wohl ist es auch extrem gut recherchiert – dafür Hut ab! Auch wenn ich schon relativ früh eine Ahnung hatte, wer da wirklich agiert, so blieb es doch bis zum Ende spannend. Jetzt stellt sich nur noch die Frage, ob es zwischen Zoe und Kommissarin Sudhoff vielleicht eine verwandtschaftliche Verbindung gibt. Aber das wird vielleicht in einem weiteren Roman geklärt werden.

[chronophotographic-gun]

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022)

"We tried to combine these raw, gritty oil drum recordings with these distorted and pulsing synth sounds... This is the first time I’ve traveled to a set to sample and record actual oil drums, pipes, and found sounds to create a score... We had a drumstick with a super bouncy ball attached to the [oil drum], and we dragged it across the metal pipes to create ominous, resonate drones."

Gavin Brivik on producing the film's opening track 'Why I Destroyed Your Property'

[letterboxd-loggd]

Sharp Stick (2022) Lena Dunham

February 17th 2024

[moviemosaics]

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

directed by Daniel Goldhaber, 2022

[laserpinksteam]

Film after film: Sharp Stick (dir. Lena Dunham, 2022)

[rookie-critic]

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2023, dir. Daniel Goldhaber) - review by Rookie-Critic

My full-length review this week was going to be over Renfield, but I saw this last night and felt like talking about it more (plus Renfield is very cut-and-dry: good, not great. Could have used more Nicolas Cage because his performance was awesome). Also, I felt like I was getting in the habit of only doing full-lengthers for the big blockbuster releases of the week and not giving love to the indie films.

I was very excited to see this film because it looked like a well-made eco-thriller that would show the complicated nature of fighting back against a corrupt system built to punish those trying to enact change. I will say that it is very well-made. The low-budget, sometimes handheld nature of the camerawork did wonders for the overall vibe of the film and the script, from a story standpoint, was very solid and had my anxiety high from beginning to end. The score was also something I picked up on immediately as being both really good instrumental music and really good at servicing the film's intensity. Another aspect that really works in the film's favor is a stunning and quite remarkable cast of up-and-comers, including Ariela Barer (Marvel's Runaways), Marcus Scribner (black-ish/Grown-ish), Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant), Sasha Lane (American Honey), Jayme Lawson (Till & The Woman King), Jake Weary (Animal Kingdom), Lukas Gage (Assassination Nation), and Kristine Froseth (Looking for Alaska). I just went ahead and named all of them because they all deliver such fantastic performances with what they were given. Special mention should specifically go to Goodluck, though, for making me very interested in a character the film doesn't give you a ton of information about.

The part that bugs me about Pipeline is that, despite a solid script and an ensemble cast that is both diverse and extremely talented, the film doesn't critically analyze it's morality or do much to call into question if our characters are truly doing the right thing or not. Of course, there are throwaway lines here and there about how what they're doing is an act of terrorism, and one character in particular brings up more than once the ethical grey-area of what they're doing, but she is the lone voice in a crowd of bullheaded individuals that believe what they're doing is altruistically the right thing to do. It makes a less-than-baseline attempt at holding a mirror up to the ensemble and treats them as heroes when, at best, they're anti-heroes. Well-intentioned anti-heroes, but anti-heroes all the same.

I think one of the biggest proponents of this is the film's character writing. We are given flashbacks throughout the film providing a little backstory for all of our main cast of characters, which, in and of itself, is a great device, but it is used aimlessly and doesn't provide anything close to the kind of insight into our characters' motivations that I was looking for. We seem them all from a bird's-eye-view, getting more of a template of a person than something more fully realized. We see the triggering event that pushed some of them over the edge, but we don't get the context, the build-up, the lifetime of constant reminders that their-world is dying and there is nothing truly substantial that they can do about it. In the case of some of the characters we don't even really get an inciting moment, merely just a footnote onto the film that explains how they got entangled in their current situation. It's character backstory that moves the plot forward, but doesn't necessarily move our characters forward, and that's Pipeline's biggest detriment. It cares more about sending a very black-and-white, blunt-force-trauma message to the audience through plot beats as opposed to a very thought-provoking, nuanced message about complex morality and the pitfalls of well-intentioned extremism through its characters. There are whispers of the latter, moments where the film opens itself up for you to ascribe your own biases to a character and sympathize with their logic, but it is all very surface level.

It's an expertly crafted film with a lot of great things going for it, but it takes a much less effective soap-box approach to a story that would have been way more well-suited to a humanistic one. If you take the good with the bad, all things considered, it is very entertaining. There's something to be said that there are multiple moments when the theater audibly gasped and even more moments where I was literally, physically on the edge of my seat. It was good enough to make me interested in reading the book (something I hardly ever do anymore) and watching director Daniel Goldhaber's first film, Cam. I'll be keeping an eye out for future projects from him, for sure.

Score: 7/10

Currently only in theaters.

[batterknowsbetter]

[rickchung]

How to Blow Up A Pipleline (dir. Daniel Goldhaber) x TIFF 2022.

[It] adapts Swedish academic Andreas Malm’s non-fiction climate activist book about ecological sabotage into a gripping contemporary heist thriller. Set in the vast oil fields of West Texas, the film’s radical message of driving active change through destruction and property damage frames an intriguing narrative hook of justifiable eco-terrorism for the greater good to save humanity from ourselves.

[genevieveetguy]

How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Daniel Goldhaber (2022)

[watchingalotofmovies]

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

How to Blow Up a Pipeline    [trailer]

A crew of environmental activists plot a daring plan to disrupt an oil pipeline.

A tense thriller. Not exactly a documentary, but still mostly no-nonsense, it feels very real.

As for the story. It's very timely, and a difficult topic. It's clear that humanity is unwilling to change course in a timely manner to avoid that large parts of the global population will increasingly suffer from the effects caused by global warming in the not too distant future. So how far should you be allowed to go to draw attention?

[twenty-words-or-less]

How To Blow Up A Pipeline

Summary: Nine people come together to, well, blow up an oil pipeline that runs through West Texas, with their own motivations for doing so.

Tight little thriller with actual characters rather than caricatures. Not as preachy as expected, and good points are made, too.

Rating: 3.75/5

Photo credit: Our Favourite Places

[stuff-diary]

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

Movies watched in 2023

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022, USA)

Director: Daniel Goldhaber

Writers: Ariela Barer, Jordan Sjol & Daniel Goldhaber

Mini-review:

I was a huge fan of Daniel Goldhaber's first film, the arrestingly original and unsettling Cam, so I was really looking forward to his next work. And How to Blow Up a Pipeline didn't disappoint at all. In fact, it's an even better movie in pretty much every way. It brings incredibly important issues to the forefront, and does so with impressive levels of tension. The movie gets more and more intense as it goes on, and by the end it had me on the edge of my seat. In fact, I audibly gasped during several scenes, that's how immersed I got.

The movie is not very long, but it makes sure to spend just enough time with the characters, in order to learn about their backgrounds and reasons. The flashbacks are inserted in the perfect moments, building tension and helping the viewer get to know the characters at the same time. I also loved how all the characters were morally grey antiheroes. You can't help but side with them and hope they pull it off, even if you know they're planning on comitting a major crime that won't only affect their targets. This is all thanks to the strenghts of the writing and the cast. To sum up, this movie is an intense eco-thriller that delivers nail-biting suspense and shines a light on very important themes and issues.

[pop-culturalist]

Kristine Froseth and Lukas Gage Discuss How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Creating Conversations Through Art, and More

[jmunneytumbler]

2-for-1 Movie Review: How to Paint a Pipeline

2-for-1 Movie Review: How to Paint a Pipeline

CREDIT: IFC Films; NEON How to Blow Up a Pipeline Starring: Ariela Barer, Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Jake Weary, Irene Bedard, Olive Jane Lorraine Director: Daniel Goldhaber Running Time: 100 Minutes Rating: R for Nights of Debauchery Amidst the Activism Release Date: April 7, 2023 (Theaters) Paint Starring: Owen Wilson, Michaela…

[mikesfilmtalk]

Cash Out: Sloppy and Inept

The 2024 film Cash Out is sloppy and inept. The editing is all over the place, the plot meanders and the acting is dreadful. But let me tell you how I really feel. the story Mason Goddard is pulling off a grand heist aided by love interest Amelia Decker. Decker turns out to be FBI and the whole thing ends up in the drink. Fastforward and Goddard’s brother talk him into the heist of a lifetime,…

[moviesandmania]

CASH OUT Action crime thriller starring John Travolta - trailer and release news

‘Every heist has its price.’ Cash Out is a 2024 action crime thriller about a bank robbery that goes wrong leaving the thieves trapped inside. The movie was directed by “Ives” – making his feature directorial debut – from a screenplay by Dipo Oseni and Doug Richardson. Produced by Cecil Chambers and Joel Cohen. The Convergence Entertainment Group production stars John Travolta, Kristin Davis,…