She Rides Shotgun fits snugly into the father-daughter dynamic of thrillers that can lean into the heartfelt and the hurt. Although armed with a decent degree of corruption, drugs, and white supremacist antagonists to fuel its plot, this is familiar ground that is only as stable as the materials used. Like the retreads of romantic comedies, the performances and atmosphere matter most. On that level, this film runs like a well-oiled machine.

Taron Egerton melts into the role of Nate, a former Aryan released from prison but far from safe. Thinking fast amid targeted attacks, he rescues his daughter, Poly, from certain death. Ana Sophia Heger plays Poly with great emotion and smarts, tearfully deducing with Nate’s arrival that something terrible is going down. She doesn’t feel safe, especially with Nate’s dishonesty, aversion from law enforcement, and his body riddled with tattooed remnants of his time with a gang known as Aryan Steel. Only once Nate comes clean with the situation does the danger of the situation strengthen the parental bond. She’s still terrified of where she’s been placed, but has a strong enough bond with her dad to follow him into situations where she’s expected to beat bad people with a bat.

Hitting the ground running, the tapestry of this crime thriller is that Nate and Poly are targeted by both the Aryan Steel, trying to cut off loose ends, the police, blaming him for the murder of Poly’s mother, and the police on the take of Aryan Steel. The only cop on their side is the stern Detective John Park (Rob Yang), doing his best to prove himself as the one cop who won’t jump to bloody conclusions. While he slowly untangles the web of drugs and deceit, there’s plenty of time to appreciate the dynamic between Nate and Poly amid more crimes. One of the most intense and meaningful moments occurs when their financial situation warrants a gas station robbery. The robbery goes a bit awry when a gun-toting law enforcer complicates the problem, but the punchline of Nate remembering Poly’s favorite candy bar amid the gunfire and getaway ends up being rather sweet amid the grit.

By the third act, the film settles on Nate’s ultimate penance being a showdown with the Aryan Steel leader Houser, played by John Carroll Lynch in a mustache and cowboy hat. While there isn’t much to the character beyond his schemes and tortures, it was still impressive to see Lynch melt into this role of a man so entrenched in the world of murder that slicing open guts feels more like a medical procedure of the job than an act of sinister slaughter. He makes for a solid villain that it’s honestly a shame the film doesn’t feature him more prominently, if only to give Lynch more time to flex in a middle-aged villain role he embodies rather well. There’s only so much time spent with the character before the film steers towards the obligatory shootout, where he spends more time firing guns and shouting about how he views himself as a god.

Despite staying in a firm lane of crime thrillers with a father-daughter chemistry, She Rides Shotgun still manages to be an engrossing picture for the effort in the acting. Much like how Poly entertains herself with blind-tasting potato chips while lying low in a dank motel room, the actors are putting their foot forward to make this material something more. There are just enough moments of humanity for Egerton and Heger to make these roles feel more compelling than standard, with Egerton displaying fragility and fury while Heger showcases genuine youthful innocence. I think this type of film works in the scene where Heger is meant to let go of her teddy bear as a symbol of growing up. It’s a rather obvious moment of growth, but the fear and tears sell the loss of innocence with great care. This is the type of film where you can really only judge it by how many tears are mustered and how hard the punches hit. It hits pretty hard.