Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Following the arrest of her mother, Ramona, young Vanessa Lutz decides to go in search of her estranged grandmother. On the way, she is given a ride by school counselor Bob Wolverton. During the journey, Lutz begins to realize that Bob is the notorious I-5 Killer and manages to escape by shooting him several times. Wounded but still very much alive, Bob pursues Lutz across the state in this modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.
Freeway is a genuinely audacious neo-noir fairy tale that earns its distinctiveness. Reese Witherspoon delivers a ferociously committed, career-defining performance as Vanessa, while Kiefer Sutherland is brilliantly creepy as Wolverton. The Little Red Riding Hood conceit is executed with real wit and subversive energy — flipping the predator/victim dynamic with gleeful transgression. The plot is sharp and propulsive, leaning hard into its exploitation-meets-literary-allegory premise in a way that feels genuinely singular. Cinematography is competent but unremarkable for mid-90s independent crime fare. The ending, while satisfying in its dark comic logic, loses some momentum in the third act prison sequences before delivering its payoff.