She Rides Shotgun
Adapted from the novel of the same name, She Rides Shotgun opens with Polly Huff (Ana Sophia Heger) being picked up from school not by her mother or stepfather but her biological father Nate (Taron Egerton) who was released from prison that morning. And he's had something of a day. In a choice that pays off beautifully, we don't learn anything before Polly does. She's a smart enough girl to know something is wrong with Nate showing up in a hotwired car but also scared enough to not push the issue with the most dangerous man in her world.
After a fallout in prison with a white power neo-Nazi group, Nate (and all his loved ones) have been marked for death. Choosing to take Polly and run, Nate is cast suddenly in a role of both protector and father. Ana Sophia Heger is terrific in a role that has runs the gamut from sheer terror to soul-crushing grief to moments of genuine love and happiness. And Egerton is smartly cast as the hard ass who, despite all his faults, still hopes to keep Polly safe.
The rest of the film gets a bit more complicated than necessary involving the one cop (Rob Yang) willing to trust in Nate in order to take down the neo-Nazi leader who is also the local sheriff (John Carroll Lynch) of a nearby community (and its main supplier of meth). However, even this relatively good cop has nothing more than a half-assed plan to use Nate to get at the region's most prosperous drug supplier.
When the film is centered around father and daughter it works better than expected, but struggles at any point where the focus shifts elsewhere. Thankfully, Nate and Polly make up the majority of the film on the run from a dark boogeyman (who might have been far more menacing if never shown) and reconnecting as father and daughter despite the circumstances that have thrown them together. The final act is a bit messier than I'd like with its big action set piece that feels like its been pulled from another film before returning to where we started with Polly and allowing us to decide for ourselves how her story ultimately ends.
Watch the trailer- Title: She Rides Shotgun
- IMDb: link
