She Rides Shotgun (2025), Dir Nick Rowland, Lionsgate, 4☆☆☆☆. Review: Matthew Alicoon.

She Rides Shotgun (2025), Dir Nick Rowland, Lionsgate,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: Matthew Alicoon.

Running Time: 122 Minutes

Available on Amazon Prime

“…an underrated gem that deserves your attention.”

Based on the 2017 novel of the same name, She Rides Shotgun follows a young girl Polly Huff (Ana Sophia Heger) as she is forced to go on the run with her estranged father Nate McClusky (Taron Egerton). The film quickly becomes a cat and mouse game of survival.

She Rides Shotgun takes the familiar contours of the road-crime drama and reshapes them with a stylistic sense of authorship. Nick Rowland’s direction gives the film a muscular clarity; every set piece feels carved with purpose rather than becoming an overbearing spectacle, including a claustrophobic shower altercation and a vigorously charged car chase. For an independent small release, I admired the grand scale propulsion that lies within the film, due to Nick Rowland’s dynamic rhythm with the set pieces. At the core of the film, is an unexpectedly tender father and daughter portrait of a fractured bond. Writers Jordan Harper (Original Author of The Book), Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski intelligently balance their priorities, where the violence never eclipsed the investing human stakes. The opening sequence alone brings you in with a tight precision.

What this film does is solidify Taron Egerton to be one of the most versatile and emotionally articulated actors of today. Egerton’s work is quietly mesmerising, grounded in a tender rawness. Opposite him, Ana Sophia Heger delivers a performance of remarkable naturalism; there are moments where the boundaries between character and performer seem to dissolve. Both Egerton and Heger’s screen presence has a delicate intimacy. Taron Egerton gets the next 10 projects out of me. Egerton’s career has often been defined by bold choices, but this marks a fascinating step into deeper independent territory. Having seen most of his work from Kingsman: The Secret Service, I have been astonished of his career choices. Specifically the trajectory he is on right now, it is remarkably impressive to take in as a viewer. Small shoutout to Smoke on Apple TV which came out earlier this year with a stellar performance from Taron Egerton.

My only real fault with the film is the adherence to a fundamentally linear and predictable narrative shape. The screenplay never veers from expectations feeling conventional at times. However, Nick Rowland’s ferocious style of an immediate emotional identification with the leads, makes for such a compelling viewing experience. Taron Egerton and Ana Sophia Heger’s dynamic is comparable to the quiet sentimentality of Paul Mescal and Franke Corio in Aftersun. The film focuses on the emotional aftershocks of events being a story of forgiveness, survival and reconciliation. She Rides Shotgun emerges as a strikingly assured and deeply confident piece of work – an underrated gem that deserves your attention on Amazon Prime.

Cast

Taron Egerton as Nate McClusky

Ana Sophia Heger as Polly Huff

Rob Yang as Detective John Park

John Carroll Lynch as Houser

Odessa A'zion as Charlotte

David Lyons as Jimmy

Crew

Director – Nick Rowland

Screenwriters  - Jordan Harper, Ben Collins & Luke Piortrowski

Producers - Brad Weston, Collin Creighton, Hiro Murai, Nate Matteson & Taron Egerton

Cinematographer – Wyatt Garfield

Editor – Julie Monroe

Music – Blanck Mass