Based on the novel by Jordan Harper, with a screenplay by Harper and Ben Collins & Luke Piotrowski, and directed by Nick Rowland, She Rides Shotgun is a punchy, elemental thriller featuring Taron Egerton in an intense, engaging lead role. He plays Nate, just out of prison and immediately on the run from Aryan Steel, a neo-Nazi gang he crossed inside in order to get out. Now the order is out for Nate and his entire bloodline to be killed. Once he’s picked up his 11-year-old daughter Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) from school, the duo is on the road and driving fast, trying to figure out a way to stay alive. From stolen car to cheap motel to a wayward friend’s house, the duo learns about each other for the very first time.
Rowland constructs an entertaining powder keg of a narrative, changing much from the source material in what appears to be an attempt to streamline motivations and character arcs. Rob Yang puts in great work as Detective Park, a nuanced take on the “one good cop” character. John Carroll Lynch does well on the opposite side as the incapably evil “God of Slabtown,” a villain who is unfortunately given too little screen time to make the desired impact.
The New Mexico setting is sparse and brutal, matching Nate’s emotions. Egerton has maybe never been better than he is in this role. It feels as though he’s grown into the movie star Hollywood has wanted him to be––somewhat ironic given the stripped-down, independent nature of She Rides Shotgun. Ana Sophia Heger is up to the task as well, playing a child in the middle of an impossible circumstance with the right level of complexity.
A bit of suspension of belief is required to get through the picture’s third act (and allow for nuance in certain characters that have previously appeared to have few moral qualms), yet She Rides Shotgun moves at a pace that is urgent and effective. There is a particular scene involving Park and Polly that is interrupted by a malevolent third party and proves deeply unsettling; director of photography Wyatt Garfield makes very good use of a small hotel room.
Rowland has a proper sense of what works in his film––primarily Nate and Polly. There is a real chemistry between Egerton and Heger in their many scenes together that propels the narrative and deepens the audience’s investment in stakes. There’s also an economy to the action sequences that feel necessary but also well-constructed. Consider a wide tracking shot of a climatic shootout that allows both simplicity of scope and dynamic visuals––Rowland makes the very most of his resources.
She Rides Shotgun ultimately succeeds by not overplaying its hand. The moments of violence are short and punctuated. The moments of revelation and forgiveness are relatively spartan. Harper’s source material is a hard-boiled tour de force, and while Rowland’s adaptation adjusts and simplifies the novel on which it’s based, it successfully bottles the energy and unleashes it onscreen.
She Rides Shotgun opens on Friday, August 1.
The post She Rides Shotgun Review: Father-Daughter Bonding Through Bloodshed first appeared on The Film Stage.
