29/11/25

Prime Video

Now and then (and more increasingly in these troubled times) a film deserving of a theatrical release finds itself unceremoniously shunted straight onto streaming. She Rides Shotgun is one such production. While it doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, this tautly-paced action thriller has all the ingredients required to keep a viewer hooked to the final frame, not least impressive performances from Taron Egerton and newcomer, Ana Sophia Heger.

10-year-old Polly Huff (Heger) is waiting patiently outside her school in Los Angeles (though the film is mostly shot in and around Alberquerque), fully expecting to be picked up by her mom. She’s understandably bewildered when her estranged father, Nate (Egerton), turns up at the wheel of a stolen vehicle and bundles her into the passenger seat. Polly knows that Nate has only recently been released from prison and is also aware that her mother has moved on with her life and now has a new partner. 

But once installed in a seedy motel room, Polly overhears a television news report informing her that both her mom and stepdad have been murdered, and that Nate is the main suspect for the crime. What’s more, the killings have been linked to a white supremacist movement called Aryan Steel.

Before Polly quite knows what’s happening, Nate is cutting and dying her hair and preparing to take her off on a desperate run for the Mexican border.

As I said, She Rides Shotgun doesn’t have the most original premise – indeed, with those New Mexico locations and that evocative title, it feels suspiciously like a contemporary Western – but director Nick Rowland ensures that the unfolding events are seen through Polly’s POV, and he somehow manages to imbue the resulting mix of gun fights, punch-ups and car chases with enough verve to keep me on the edge of my seat.

Events get more complicated when it transpires that nearly every police officer the duo encounter on their travels is linked to the aforementioned Aryan Steel. It’s hard to know who they can trust – though Detective John Park (Rob Yang) seems the likeliest contender for that role – and he says he has a plan that can secure their future…

Egerton (looking like he’s ingested a mountain of protein shakes since his last screen outing and sporting a ripped physique that’s seemingly carved from granite) manages to convey a father’s desperate need to protect his daughter. Heger’s performance is extraordinary, her evident vulnerability bringing me close to tears, especially at the film’s heartbreaking conclusion.

So, job done: this is well worth catching, even if those vast desert landscapes do deserve to be seen on a much bigger screen.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney