Capsule Reviews: 'Strays,' 'Heart of Stone,' 'Golda' & 'How to Blow Up a Pipeline'

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being covered here wouldn't exist.

by Philip Price

Strays

Photo: Universal Pictures

The thing you have to recognize about “Strays,” directed by Josh Greenbaum, is that despite somehow winding up in theaters at the tail end of the summer movie season it wasn't made for sober high school kids looking to sneak into a raunchy R-rated comedy on a Friday night (do kids still do that?) only to be disappointed by the lack of laughs, but rather this was made for those kids to discover five years down the road when they're stoned in college looking for something mindless to watch and come across “Strays” on streaming. At that point, this shit should be hilarious as I myself, a 36-year-old sober father of three who saw this alone on a Thursday evening, found enough here to consistently laugh at even if it only made me miss the golden age of Will Ferrell even more than I already do.

"Strays" is currently in theaters. 

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Heart of Stone

Photo: Netflix

I’m still not convinced Gal Gadot wasn't playing some type of A.I. cyborg who developed genuine emotion rather than an infiltrator who caught feelings (there's evidence in the dialogue and I won't throw shade at the easy target of Gadot's acting), but either way - I had more fun with this for more of the runtime than I didn't than I probably should have. Even still, “Heart of Stone,” directed by Tom Harper, is visually one step away from those Frank Grillo Redbox movies.

"Heart of Stone" is streaming on Netflix

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Golda

Photo: Bleecker Street

Knowing nothing of Golda Meir or the Yom Kippur War that lasted 19 days in October of 1973, director Guy Nattiv’s film doesn’t teach so much as it does showcase some sleek yet simple direction, a neat score in the vein of “Atonement,” and, of course, a fine performance from Helen Mirren at its center. Unfortunately, it entertains about as much as it educates, which is to say little of it is intriguing.

​"Golda" is currently in theaters. 

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How to Blow Up a Pipeline

Photo: Neon

"We are living through the sixth mass extinction. This is, in part, due to your use of a luxury yacht. This yacht serves no practical purpose. Using it poisons our water. The gas that powers it boils our oceans and destroy our atmosphere.

As a wealthy person, you may escape some of these consequences, for now. But they are here. People are dying. Communities are being wiped off the face of the planet - today. We can still prevent a climate catastrophe. But if the market will not act then we will.
If the law will not punish you, then we will.

We must disable CO-2 emitting devices today, not tomorrow. We cannot wait."

I did not leave the "s" off of destroys. That's how the flyer read in the film. Even activists need an editor. Props to the editor of “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” though, who makes this tightly-wound PSA zip by - especially when paired with Gavin Brivik's tension-filled score. The film, directed by Daniel Goldhaber, is a scrappy, well-constructed sermon even if one can detect the seams of said construction. It’s not not persuasive and I certainly appreciate the ambition and intention, but don't know if it's powerful or poignant enough to convert the skeptics.

"How to Blow Up a Pipeline" is streaming on Hulu.