Netflix has just added one of the best films of the year so far to its library.
Already this month, the streaming service has released many high-profile titles, including season two of The Lincoln Lawyer, a documentary about Wham! and a stand-up show from comedian Tom Segura.
But those who haven’t rifled through the new titles that have been made available this week will not have spotted an acclaimed film that was released in cinemas in April.
The movie in question is How to Blow Up a Pipeline, a radical heist thriller based on Andreas Malm’s 2021 book on climate activism. It follows a group of environmental activists in Texas who attempt to sabotage the development of an oil pipeline.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline, which was added to the streaming service on Monday (10 July), was written by lead star Ariela Barer, Jordan Sjol, and Daniel Goldhaber, who also directs. His previous film was the Netflix horror thriller CAM (2018), starring Handmaid’s Tale actor Madeline Brewer.
Also starring in the film are Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Jake Weary, and Irene Bedard.
In The Independent’s four-star review, critic Clarisse Loughrey says the film “borrows the tone and structure of a classic Hollywood thriller”, adding: “The humanity at the center of How to Blow Up a Pipeline better serves its tension, too – racketed up by the cinematographer Tehillah De Castro’s use of grainy 16mm, sharp editing by Daniel Garber, and a restless electronic score by Gavin Brivik.”
Meanwhile, The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw compared the film’s structure to that of Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 debut Reservoir Dogs, while RogerEbert.com, writer Matt Zoller Seitz branded it “one of the most original American thrillers in years”.
