Heartfelt but filled with gritty action
Summary
She Rides Shotgun is emotionally intense with amazing performances from our two leads while also giving us some shoot-outs and brief fight scenes. It takes a little while for the action to kick in, but it’s mostly worth the wait and I was surprised how invested I was in the characters. Worth a watch.
Plot: Marked for death by unrelenting enemies, a newly released ex-con must protect his estranged 11-year-old daughter at all costs. With little resources and no one to trust, they form a bond under fire as they evade a corrupt sheriff and a brutal gang leader who’ll stop at nothing to protect his criminal interests.
Review: She Rides Shotgun has been on my watchlist for a while, and I finally watched it this week.
In She Rides Shotgun, Taron Egerton plays Nate McClusky, an ex-con on the run from his old crew as he tries to protect his daughter Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) from harm.
I think Egerton is an incredibly gifted actor and this is one of his best performances to date; it’s hard to believe he’s English as he does a faultless American accent. Ana Sophia Heger is a revelation too and she brings a quiet dignity to Polly rather than being annoying, which her character could easily have been.
I was rooting for them both despite Nate being rough around the edges; there were some wonderfully heartfelt moments and despite his flaws he’s just trying to do what’s best for his daughter. The scene where he begs her to stay good and not be like him brought a tear to my eye.
This is a mixture of genres including coming of age and thriller, but it is also an action picture with a few fight scenes and shoot-outs with a bullet riddled finale. There isn’t anything that stretches credibility here with the film packed with gritty realism; the fights are never overly choregraphed and feel desperate, as they should.
The first 30 minutes are a little slow but it’s building up the characters, and we aren’t quite sure how trustworthy Nate actually is which keeps things tense.
The music score was innovative and almost dreamlike at times and was one of my favourite aspects of the film.
Overall, She Rides Shotgun is a little slow to get going, but when the action comes, it hits hard and is worth the buildup. The performances are faultless and the score is fantastic making this one of the few made for streaming movies that’s definitely worth checking out.