Ya gotta love that title. Sounds like a redneck country tune about life on the road, or a lyric AC/DC pulled from their bottomless cache of double entendres, or a sleazy drive-in exploitation flick where the protagonist’s sexy girlfriend enthusiastically rides along during crime spree.
Instead, this cheerfully exploitative title is squandered on a novel (by Jordan Harper) and movie (co-written by Harper) that have the audacity to take themselves seriously. But fans of raunchy road flicks shouldn’t fret too much…I’m sure Truck Stop Women is readily available to rewatch on some streaming service. The rest of you might find this film to be a pleasant surprise, albeit a pretty downbeat one.
She Rides Shotgun is sort of a road movie, though, but has much more on its mind than shootouts and chases. 10-year-old Polly Huff (Ana Sofia Heger) is waiting at school for her mother. Instead, Nate McClusky (Taron Edgerton), her estranged father just out of prison, arrives in a stolen car and urgently demands she comes along. He does not answer Polly’s questions about her mother’s whereabouts.
While hiding out in a motel, Polly learns on TV that her mother’s been murdered and Nate’s the primary suspect. But Nate has bigger concerns. While in prison, he ran afoul of Aryan Steel, a powerful white supremist organization led by someone simply known as the God of Slogtown, the biggest meth lab in the region. So not only are Nate and Polly on the run from police, Aryan Steel is hunting for them, too. They’re also the ones who murdered Polly’s mother.
![]() |
| "It's just wood paneling, kid. It can't hurt you if you don't look at it." |
That’s the nutshell plot, and while it certainly throws in some gritty action - including a tension-filled robbery attempt by Nate while Polly waits in the car - the crux of the narrative is the developing relationship between these two. It doesn’t always go the directions the viewer might expect, but considering the backgrounds of both, it’s ultimately very endearing. Much of our investment in them comes from good writing, but mostly the excellent performances by Edgerton and Heger.
Before anyone starts assuming She Rides Shotgun descends into sunshine and lollipops, this is a dark, violent film that, despite a few moments of levity, maintains a grim tone. Almost from the get-go, we’re pretty certain things aren’t going to end well for everybody. At 120 minutes, it’s a little longer than need-be, but despite a few lulls, this is an engaging action film with a surprising amount of heart…and perhaps deserving of its title after all.


.png)





.jpg)











.jpg)