She Rides Shotgun (2025)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Running Low

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Though it has many elements familiar to the crime-drama genre, Nick Rowland's She Rides Shotgun, which is based on a 2017 novel, effectively uses its 120 minutes to build the characters and deepen its emotional impact.

Eleven-year-old Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) waits for her mother after school, but her mother is late. Something is wrong. A man shows up instead. It's Polly's father, Nathan (Taron Egerton), who has just been released from prison. They barely know each other. He is acting a little tense. The car he's driving has a broken window and has been hot-wired. He takes them to a motel, rather than home.

On the TV news, Polly learns about a double murder, and she sees Detective John Park (Rob Yang), who is in charge of the case and is looking for Polly. Her father explains that he made powerful enemies in prison, and they are out for vengeance. Before long Nathan realizes that he can't run forever, and must make a final stand.

She Rides Shotgun starts well, stretching out the time Polly spends waiting at the school, keeping us in the dark as to exactly what is wrong or why. Little elements come together slowly, deliberately, raising a sense of unease. At the same time, the movie drops in moments in which the characters make small connections, such as when Nathan cuts and dyes Polly's hair. He does a terrible job, but she still loves it; she does a happy little bounce in front of the mirror.

A robbery-turned-chase scene grows more and more tense through inventive use of music, but also continues to bring the two characters closer. The movie creates a sense of menace with the villainous white supremacist drug dealing society Aryan Steel, whose members are secret and could be lurking anywhere.

That's where Detective Park (a Korean-American) becomes such a fascinating character. He's an outcast trying to do his job the best he can, and he may have more in common with Nathan than with his actual colleagues.

But the real glue to the movie is Polly. Young Ana Sophia Heger gives an exemplary performance. She's asked to handle many difficult scenes, including one in which she dresses a gunshot wound on her father's leg, and she's amazingly expressive. A scene in which she panics and calls Detective Park is a standout (she impulsively weeps and chews on her fingers as she holds the phone), but the movie's closing shot, a lengthy close-up, is truly striking.

It's seemingly unimportant moments like these that elevate She Rides Shotgun to a movie very much worth seeing.