I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more films like this one, during the next decade.
Director Goldhaber’s riveting ecological thriller unfolds with the intensity of a ticking time bomb … which, climate-wise, intentionally echoes the status of Earth these days.
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| Xochitl (Ariela Barer, far left) and four of her colleagues — from left, Alisha (Jayme Lawson), Theo (Sasha Lane), Shawn (Marcus Scribner) and Dwayne (Jake Weary) — wait, at a safe distance, for the next phase of their plan to be executed. |
Goldhaber, along with co-scripters Ariela Barer and Jordan Sjol, instead have fashioned a non-linear nail-biter very much in the mold of Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 crime thriller, Reservoir Dogs. Both films feature eight primary characters; both intercut the suspensefully developing climax with flashbacks providing key details that explain what draws these folks together.
The film opens by following Xochitl (Ariela Barer) as she walks along a city street and, unseen, slashes the tires of a parked SUV; she then slides a one-page manifesto beneath the windshield wipers. She becomes the prime mover behind what takes place soon thereafter.
Xochitl grew up in Long Beach, Calif., surrounded by polluting refineries and chemical plants. She became radicalized following the recent death of her mother, during a heat wave likely exacerbated by insufficient air conditioning.
Xochitl later joins the others — Shawn (Marcus Scribner), Michael (Forrest Goodluck), Theo (Sasha Lane), Alisha (Jayme Lawson), Logan (Lukas Gage), Rowan (Kristine Froseth) and Dwayne (Jake Weary) — at a deserted cabin in West Texas. They’re prepared for a brief but intense stay, having brought food, supplies … and all the elements required to make two large cylindrical barrel bombs.
Their efforts reflect meticulous — and quite clever — planning, along with a rigorous attention to detail. During this initial phase, they work under the guidance of Michael, who lives on a North Dakota reservation. Infuriated by how a nearby refinery has imperiled his people’s land, he taught himself how to make increasingly sophisticated bombs and triggering devices.
We eventually learn that Xochitl and Theo grew up together. As children, they’d gaily play in the rain … and then suffer, hours later, from chemical burns on their exposed skin. Theo recently has been handed a death sentence of leukemia, which prompts a sense of can’t-lose fatalism; it also further fuels Xochitl’s wrath. Theo’s girlfriend Alisha, horrified by their behavior, tries to be the voice of reason … but ultimately succumbs to the developing plan.
It’s subsequently revealed that Xochitl met Shawn while both were student members of a Chicago divestment group. The hard-partying Logan and Rowan, often under the influence of alcohol or other mind-altering substances, seem unlikely misfits: treating what the others are planning as more of a lark than a bold activist statement.
Gage and Froseth giddily play Logan and Rowan as self-involved merry pranksters. We wonder about — and become suspicious of — their involvement: How did they even meet the others?
Dwayne, finally, is a different sort of outlier: a blue-collared Texan, with wife and family, who — under ordinary circumstances — wouldn’t be caught dead with such “insufferable lefties.” But he’s enraged by having lost his family’s ancestral land to an oil company that seized the property via eminent domain laws. Having sunk all their savings into a losing legal battle, Dwayne also is intimately familiar with the pipeline in question … and its vulnerabilities.
These flashback details filter in amid Michael’s hair-raising progress with primer charges and bomb components: acid, ammonium nitrate and other (wisely unspecified) materials, all of which must be mixed and dripped to precise measurements, under carefully monitored temperature conditions. Displaying a gleeful sense of directorial cruelty, Goldhaber frequently interrupts this increasingly tense process with another flashback. (We exhale shakily each time, not even aware of breath being held.)
Things go right; things go wrong. Unexpected hiccups — each quite reasonable — necessitate adjustments. Further surprises are in store via the final flashbacks; the script becomes fiendishly twisty.
And we wonder … how will this end?
All eight actors are strong, each wholly credible; these feel like actual people. That said, Barer, Weary and Goodluck stand out. Anger and frustration radiate from Xochitl with shocking intensity; Barer’s piercing gaze makes the woman’s passion tangible. Goodluck, stoic and brooding, is pure warrior; Michael clearly believes that he’s on a holy mission.
Weary’s performance is heartbreaking. Once upon a time, Dwayne would have been a good ol’ boy equally devoted to raising cattle and a family; he despairs over how events have transformed him into something almost unrecognizable. Olive Jane Lorraine also is solid as his wife Katie, who worries about Dwayne losing himself — or even worse — among these new “colleagues.”
Lane carries herself with a fragility that makes us wonder if Theo will survive long enough to see this endeavor through. The script also takes a brief shot at the U.S. healthcare system — and hasn’t that become an oxymoron — when Theo’s modest means impede her ability to maintain an ongoing supply of necessary drugs.
The group’s varying levels of commitment and social awareness fuel one late-night discussion, which echoes the central question Malm raises in his book: How will this act be perceived by the mainstream public? Is it a necessary wake-up call … or a reckless move likely to alienate many potential sympathetic to the cause, and perhaps even result in political repression?
At what point does a patriot become a revolutionary … or merely a terrorist?
Goldhaber, his co-writers and editor Daniel Garber raise these questions while generating considerable suspense; this is not a casual viewing experience. Tehillah De Castro’s slightly grainy cinematography, while likely a result of the film’s low budget, nonetheless conveys a sense of as-it-happens verisimilitude; it’s easy to forget that this isn’t a documentary.
Ultimately, Goldhaber’s film probably will fuel as much debate as Malm’s book. That’s always welcome … as long as it doesn’t take the place of meaningful change.
Because, as has been made abundantly clear by this past year’s world-wide headlines, meaningful change is becoming more necessary by the day.
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