76
Metascore
29 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100ColliderChase HutchinsonColliderChase HutchinsonWith its strong character work that gets interwoven with a striking story of sabotage, How to Blow Up a Pipeline is a riveting tapestry of the plight facing the modern climate justice movement.
- 89Paste MagazineJacob OllerPaste MagazineJacob OllerWhat makes How to Blow Up a Pipeline great, is that it so deftly wins us to its cause anyway. It’s absolutely electric filmmaking.
- 89Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerAustin ChronicleRichard WhittakerIn a less interesting film, this would all be seen through the eyes of freshly radicalized documentarian Shawn (Scribner, black-ish), but Goldhaber amplifies the tension by keeping this an ensemble.
- 80Time OutTime OutIn favouring the dramatic over the didactic, Goldhaber arguably buries the themes of the source text a little too deeply, resulting in a film that isn’t quite the call to action it might have been. Still, its message resonates – and its bomb-setting scenes are as nail-biting as cinema’s best bomb disposals.
- 75Slant MagazineMark HansonSlant MagazineMark HansonFew films feel as excitingly jacked in to our current social climate as Daniel Goldhaber’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline.
- 75LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenLarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenAn efficient thriller with eco-political ambitions.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreMaking it all work is the cast, all experienced but mostly just-unknown enough to give How to Blow Up a Pipeline a genuine indie anarchist feel.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussSan Francisco ChronicleBob StraussThese people seem real, even if their primary motivations are ideological. Perhaps more than they intended to, Goldhaber and the actors make the political personal. That’s a triumph of craft over appetites for destruction.
- 75The A.V. ClubMurtada ElfadlThe A.V. ClubMurtada ElfadlHow To Blow Up A Pipeline plays like a taut thriller that tells an unusual story. Its strength lies in making a topical issue palatable and highly watchable.
- 60The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe New York TimesBen KenigsbergHow to Blow Up a Pipeline is at its best when it functions as a kind of roughed-up caper movie; it has a degree of suspense and efficiency that are becoming all too rare in the mainstream.