Every once in a while a stunner of a female friendship story shows up and absolutely nails it. Thelma and Louise, of course, was the prime example. Was. Because this review of Ride or Die is here to tell you the next one has arrived.
Debbie (Octavia Spencer) is a newly divorced American. Judith (Hannah Waddingham) is her British best friend of twenty-something years. Two fierce women of a certain age, living their best lives, delivering achingly real performances about discovery and recovery. Then Debbie goes through Judith’s burner phones and the bottom falls out of everything. Her best friend is an international assassin. Their entire bond has been built on a lie.
If that were not enough, Debbie’s ex-husband (Bill Nighy, predictably wonderful) has stolen 24 million pounds from the Albanian mob, which makes Debbie a target by proximity. Paid assassins are circling. Options are limited.
Why We Love Hannah Waddingham
- She won the Emmy, SAG, and Critics Choice Awards for Ted Lasso and was robbed every year she didn’t win the rest.
- She is a classically trained stage actress and West End veteran who spent years doing the work before the world caught up with her.
- She hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023 and was, by universal consensus, spectacular.
- She plays strength and vulnerability at the same time without making it look like acting.
- She is 49 years old and this is arguably the best work of her career. That is the story.
Ride or Die Review: On the Run
They hit the Channel and escape to France. Debbie becomes Veronica, complete with a new passport. And here is where the series catches fire. Veronica discovers she rather enjoys the intrigue. The gadgets delight her, including a pair of glasses that can read DNA. Her respect for Judith, the woman she thought she knew completely, grows with every close call. As the danger escalates, so does the friendship. That is the engine of the show, and it earns every moment.
Yes, it is violent. The world of international assassins tends to be. But Ride or Die is smarter than its genre trappings. At its core this is a portrait of two longtime friends fighting for their lives, and the series commits to that with real feeling.
Why We Love Octavia Spencer
- She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Help in 2012 and has since received two more Oscar nominations. Three nominations across three different films puts her in very rare company.
- Her nominations span Hidden Figures and The Shape of Water — completely different roles, completely different registers. That range is the point.
- She has never once phoned it in. Not in a thriller, not in a drama, not in a supporting role, not anywhere.
- She is one of the few actors who can be simultaneously the funniest and most devastating person in any scene.
- She has been doing this since 1996. The industry took too long to notice. We are not making that mistake.
Spencer and Waddingham are both operating at the absolute top of their game. The chemistry is immediate, completely believable, and frequently very funny. You buy every second of this friendship, which is precisely what makes the stakes feel real. Neither is playing a type. Both are playing a woman.
Thelma had Louise. Debbie has Judith. Grab your Ride or Die and run, do not walk, to your screen.
Ride or Die is streaming now on Prime Video.
More Films Where Women Lead, Fight Back, and Win
- Thelma and Louise (1991) — The original. Still unmatched.
- Nine to Five (1980) — Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin take revenge on a terrible boss. Holds up completely.
- Promising Young Woman (2020) — Carey Mulligan is devastating in one of the sharpest feminist thrillers ever made.
- Widows (2018) — Four women finish what their husbands started. Steve McQueen directing. Viola Davis leading. Enough said.
- Atomic Blonde (2017) — Charlize Theron as a Cold War spy who trusts no one and answers to no one. Stylish and ruthless.
- Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 (2003/2004) — Uma Thurman on a mission. Still one of the most viscerally satisfying revenge stories ever put on screen.
- Ocean’s Eight (2018) — Sandra Bullock assembles the best ensemble in the business and pulls off the Met Gala heist of the century.
- Spy (2015) — Melissa McCarthy as an underestimated CIA analyst who turns out to be the most competent person in the room.
- Colette (2018) — Keira Knightley as the French novelist who reclaimed her name, her work, and her life from a man who took credit for all three.
- A Call to Spy (2019) — Three real women recruited as WWII spies. Reviewed right here on What She Said.
