Having earned a reputation as a master of low-key, observational "anti-drama" (the plot of Wendy and Lucy can be encapsulated in a single sentence), Kelly Reichardt kicks things up a gear with this initially gripping thriller about three mismatched eco-warriors planning to blow up a hydroelectric dam. Jesse Eisenberg (looking more like the Gen X sibling of Ron and Russell Mael from Sparks every day) and Dakota Fanning are the environmentalist and college dropout who team up with Peter Sarsgaard's ex-marine to deliver a payload of explosives via the eponymous boat.

The first half of the film (which recycles riffs from Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang) is a deftly executed blend of psychological intrigue and growing tension, with preparations for the raid achieving nail-biting levels of suspense. What follows is altogether darker, as each character is left to deal with the unforeseen Dostoevskian consequences of their actions. It's a broken-backed affair, moving from the taut intrigue of recent thrillers such as Zal Batmanglij's The East to the open-ended existential angst of executive producer Todd Haynes's Safe. Composer Jeff Grace, who worked such wonders on Cold in July, underwrites the moody action with eerie minor suspensions, while Reichardt and regular co-writer Jon Raymond display a keen ear for the fragile rhetoric of the self-righteous.