She Rides Shotgun

"R", 2 hours

Theater 10, seat G 5, E 3

Arrive at 4:30 for 5:00 film

Starring Taron Egerton, one of my favorites. I still think he should have won the Academy Award for his portrayal of Elton John. Yes, it was the year after Rami Malek won, so the folks didn't want to nominate/vote for someone who was equally good portraying a rock legend, but unlike the winner Taron Egerton sang all his songs. He did win the Golden Globe for that portrayal, so I have to be satisfied with that.

This is a limited theatrical release, and this is the last day to see it on a big screen.

SOURCE: IMDb
A girl marked for death must fight and steal to stay alive, learning from the most frightening man she knows; her father. An adaptation of Jordan Harper's award winning novel.

SOURCE: Roger Ebert
Jordan Harper’s award-winning debut novel, She Rides Shotgun, now a film starring Taron Egerton, is written in short, blunt sentences banging up against each other. This could be a self-conscious “affect,” a clear Hemingway nod.

Harper’s prose, though, is more in the tradition of noir writers like Raymond Chandler or crime novelists like Donald Westlake.
“Nate walked to the door of the Dew Drop thinking about how gunslingers die. Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok, Jesse James. All three of those bad boys died without knowing it was coming. Wild Bill took a bullet in the head while playing cards. Jesse James took one with his face to the wall, straightening a picture. Billy the Kid died in the dark, asking who is it? to the man who murdered him. That’s how gunslingers died. Real life didn’t give you a showdown. Real life put a bullet in the back of your head.”

This isn’t “affect”. This is effective.

In She Rides Shotgun, ex-con Nate McCluskey goes on the run with his 11-year-old daughter, Polly, fleeing from an Aryan gang who want them both dead. The book mixes almost shocking violence (“Chuck’s skull thocked against the concrete. He followed Chuck down. He drove his knee into Chuck’s liver”) with tenderness and humor. …

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/she-rides-shotgun-taron-egerton-movie-review-2025