God Went Like That

Murray (Art Is Everything) delves into the impact of nuclear meltdowns in the 1950s and ’60s on present-day California in her engrossing latest, presented as a report by an EPA agent. Reyna Rodriguez, 32, grew up near the Santa Susana lab in Simi Valley, where her mother worked as a cleaner and where the ground remains contaminated by nuclear waste. After Reyna’s mother dies in 2010 from a rare carcinoma, Reyna, who had a series of debilitating childhood illnesses, gets a job with the EPA, hoping to bring accountability to pollutive industries. After the 2018 Woolsey Fire, she’s assigned to Simi Valley to canvas community members regarding decades-old nuclear waste in the area. She encounters a wide range of perspectives, including those of a remorseful technician who remembers a slew of workers who died from exposure, and a chemist bent on convincing Reyna of the safety of nuclear plants compared to coal mines. Disenchanted with the EPA’s limited focus on the project, and reflecting more deeply on her mother’s death, Reyna spends over a year on the project, gathering much more info than what her employer wanted, and reconsidering what to do with her life. The interviews amount to harrowing personal narratives, and they add intriguing complexity to her understanding of her past. Murray shines with this ambitious project. (Mar.)