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Now Playing: SHE RIDES SHOTGUN (2025)
Condescension is not an option with a child young enough to sleep with a teddy bear and old enough to dispense personal physical harm.
"Atta girl! Now try a line drive to the patella!"
SHE RIDES SHOTGUN (2025) Nick Rowland / Written by: Ben Collins, Jordan Harper, Luke Piotrowski from the book by Jordan Harper / Director of Photography: Wyatt Garfield (2.35:1) / Design: John P. Goldsmith / Editor: Julie Monroe / Composer: Blanck Mass / Acted by: Ana Sophia Heger, Taron Egerton, Rob Yang, Odessa A’zion, David Lyons, and Mr. John Carroll Lynch! / Distributor: Lionsgate / USA / Rated R / 120 mins.
The girl in the schoolyard is alone. And when a beat-up red roadster with one black door pulls up, we are unsure of the driver’s intentions. Is the man behind the wheel “Mr. Stranger Danger?” A bank robber in search of a child to use as a human shield? It turns out that little girls shouldn't talk to strangers who pull up in strange cars, particularly if that stranger is also Dad.
Video:
Trailer: SHE RIDES SHOTGUN
It seems Nathan (Taron Egerton) has made a lot of enemies in prison — so many that, as soon as he is he back in circulation, the Aryan Steele gang, a loyal fraternity of neo-Nazi grime that runs a jailhouse protection racket, retaliates for his lack of prison protocol by bumping off his wife. Certain that little Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) will be the next member of his family to be “green-lit” for assassination, he does the right thing and, for the first and only time in his life, picks up his 11-year-old daughter from school.
Once Polly's in the car with her estranged father, his instructions to “buckle up” apply to both passenger and viewer. The groundwork has been laid, Polly has claimed her rightful place in the title seat, the few foundational cracks that lie ahead are quickly smoothed-over, and the chase is on.
Nathan, a wiry, shaved-head Sonny Corleone type — that is, if the Don’s oldest loaded up on facial tats at the prison inker — is intuitive enough to know that the impact his sudden reappearance after a two-year absence in federal custody will have on his daughter. Fortunately for Polly, he also knows how to talk to — not down to — his daughter. Condescension is not an option with a child young enough to sleep with a teddy bear and old enough to dispense personal physical harm. Remember when your dad taught you how to swing a bat? It's a real bonding moment, even if, in this case, the goal is not to send the ball sailing over the center field bleachers, but to kneecap the first son-of-a-bitch who comes near her.
The appearance-altering peroxide-job and safety-scissors haircut Dad provides made me yearn for a Flowbee, but damn if Polly doesn’t pull it off. She can't help but squeal with delight, that's how much she loves her new 'do. It’s the only time in the picture we see Polly behave like the kid that she is. Ana Sophia Heger looks like half an Olsen Twin with three times the talent, and the genuine rapport that she and Nathan spark is enough to compensate for the plot’s few shortcomings.
About those: there is unnecessary violence when Nathan introduces an opponent’s cheek to a mound of glowing embers amid a spilt Weber grill. And there is unnecessary contrivance when a giant gun logo on a firearms store points directly at the diner where our duo is dining. Also: what kind of a parent must Polly’s mother have been for her daughter not to grieve, if only for a moment, at her death? It’s a topic that could have stood further development, if only for a couple of lines.
All roads lead to Slabtown, the biggest meth lab in the Southwest, located right in Nathan’s backyard. Big-city cop Detective John Park (Rob Yang) aims to bust it. Yang opens a window to let some air into a role that for decades would have gone to Ken Jeong, movie and television's go-to funny Asian guy. He fit the part so snugly, the ubiquitous Jeong became his own brand of stereotype.
There’s not a bad angle to be found in cinematographer Wyatt Garfield’s New Mexican exterior work. The majestic scenery speaks for itself, while the majority of the numerous important dialogue exchanges take place in cramped bed-and-toilet roadside motels. I'm usually quick to decry rack focus as an easy transitional device, but when it's done right — e.g., the delicate focal shift when Nathan drives off, leaving Polly behind — it’s enough to raise goose flesh.
In either of his dual roles, Hauser (John Carrol Lynch) is anything but mild-mannered. Sure, he's a crooked sheriff with a megalomaniacal God complex, but whenever trouble extends outside his jurisdiction, Hauser slips out of that role to emerge as God of Slabtown. The heroin balloons in a mule’s belly are worth more than the mule's life; Hauser doesn't have time to wait around for them to pass. Just ask the last one, who had the heroin pods removed from his abdomen the quickest way possible. (A fine character actor who rarely repeats himself, Lynch can now check cartoon psycho off his list.)
A mighty fine motel room shootout concludes with the film’s one stab at poignancy — Polly permanently leaves childhood behind by sacrificing her stuffed monkey to a Doberman. The film may not end quite as sharply as it began, but there’s enough in the way of performance and action to merit two hours of your time. ***
Now playing at a theatre near you. SHOWTIMES
Here's something you might be interested in.
Now Playing: SHE RIDES SHOTGUN (2025)
Condescension is not an option with a child young enough to sleep with a teddy bear and old enough to dispense personal physical harm.
Now Playing: SHE RIDES SHOTGUN (2025)
Condescension is not an option with a child young enough to sleep with a teddy bear and old enough to dispense personal physical harm.
"Atta girl! Now try a line drive to the patella!"
SHE RIDES SHOTGUN (2025) Nick Rowland / Written by: Ben Collins, Jordan Harper, Luke Piotrowski from the book by Jordan Harper / Director of Photography: Wyatt Garfield (2.35:1) / Design: John P. Goldsmith / Editor: Julie Monroe / Composer: Blanck Mass / Acted by: Ana Sophia Heger, Taron Egerton, Rob Yang, Odessa A’zion, David Lyons, and Mr. John Carroll Lynch! / Distributor: Lionsgate / USA / Rated R / 120 mins.
The girl in the schoolyard is alone. And when a beat-up red roadster with one black door pulls up, we are unsure of the driver’s intentions. Is the man behind the wheel “Mr. Stranger Danger?” A bank robber in search of a child to use as a human shield? It turns out that little girls shouldn't talk to strangers who pull up in strange cars, particularly if that stranger is also Dad.
Video:
Trailer: SHE RIDES SHOTGUN
It seems Nathan (Taron Egerton) has made a lot of enemies in prison — so many that, as soon as he is he back in circulation, the Aryan Steele gang, a loyal fraternity of neo-Nazi grime that runs a jailhouse protection racket, retaliates for his lack of prison protocol by bumping off his wife. Certain that little Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) will be the next member of his family to be “green-lit” for assassination, he does the right thing and, for the first and only time in his life, picks up his 11-year-old daughter from school.
Once Polly's in the car with her estranged father, his instructions to “buckle up” apply to both passenger and viewer. The groundwork has been laid, Polly has claimed her rightful place in the title seat, the few foundational cracks that lie ahead are quickly smoothed-over, and the chase is on.
Nathan, a wiry, shaved-head Sonny Corleone type — that is, if the Don’s oldest loaded up on facial tats at the prison inker — is intuitive enough to know that the impact his sudden reappearance after a two-year absence in federal custody will have on his daughter. Fortunately for Polly, he also knows how to talk to — not down to — his daughter. Condescension is not an option with a child young enough to sleep with a teddy bear and old enough to dispense personal physical harm. Remember when your dad taught you how to swing a bat? It's a real bonding moment, even if, in this case, the goal is not to send the ball sailing over the center field bleachers, but to kneecap the first son-of-a-bitch who comes near her.
The appearance-altering peroxide-job and safety-scissors haircut Dad provides made me yearn for a Flowbee, but damn if Polly doesn’t pull it off. She can't help but squeal with delight, that's how much she loves her new 'do. It’s the only time in the picture we see Polly behave like the kid that she is. Ana Sophia Heger looks like half an Olsen Twin with three times the talent, and the genuine rapport that she and Nathan spark is enough to compensate for the plot’s few shortcomings.
About those: there is unnecessary violence when Nathan introduces an opponent’s cheek to a mound of glowing embers amid a spilt Weber grill. And there is unnecessary contrivance when a giant gun logo on a firearms store points directly at the diner where our duo is dining. Also: what kind of a parent must Polly’s mother have been for her daughter not to grieve, if only for a moment, at her death? It’s a topic that could have stood further development, if only for a couple of lines.
All roads lead to Slabtown, the biggest meth lab in the Southwest, located right in Nathan’s backyard. Big-city cop Detective John Park (Rob Yang) aims to bust it. Yang opens a window to let some air into a role that for decades would have gone to Ken Jeong, movie and television's go-to funny Asian guy. He fit the part so snugly, the ubiquitous Jeong became his own brand of stereotype.
There’s not a bad angle to be found in cinematographer Wyatt Garfield’s New Mexican exterior work. The majestic scenery speaks for itself, while the majority of the numerous important dialogue exchanges take place in cramped bed-and-toilet roadside motels. I'm usually quick to decry rack focus as an easy transitional device, but when it's done right — e.g., the delicate focal shift when Nathan drives off, leaving Polly behind — it’s enough to raise goose flesh.
In either of his dual roles, Hauser (John Carrol Lynch) is anything but mild-mannered. Sure, he's a crooked sheriff with a megalomaniacal God complex, but whenever trouble extends outside his jurisdiction, Hauser slips out of that role to emerge as God of Slabtown. The heroin balloons in a mule’s belly are worth more than the mule's life; Hauser doesn't have time to wait around for them to pass. Just ask the last one, who had the heroin pods removed from his abdomen the quickest way possible. (A fine character actor who rarely repeats himself, Lynch can now check cartoon psycho off his list.)
A mighty fine motel room shootout concludes with the film’s one stab at poignancy — Polly permanently leaves childhood behind by sacrificing her stuffed monkey to a Doberman. The film may not end quite as sharply as it began, but there’s enough in the way of performance and action to merit two hours of your time. ***
Now playing at a theatre near you. SHOWTIMES