This past January, I attended the annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. I was not able to secure official tickets for the film premiere of Ponyboi, directed by Esteban Arango, but I had it on my radar as USC alumni River Gallo and producer Sadé Clacken Joseph (who randomly went to the same high school as me) were apart of the production. When the waitlist opened the day of for the film Ponyboi, I had the Sundance app refreshed at just the right second, and was given #16 in the que, a sign that I could possibly get in, whereas my older sister, who clicked the same button seconds apart, received que spot #45. Standing in line 30 people apart in the waitlist section minutes before the screening started, I wasn’t expecting much. But, we ended up both getting into the Library Center Theater, grateful that some ticket-holders bailed for the 9:45pm screening.
Unfolding over the course of Valentine’s Day, Ponyboi is a mafia drama film that centers on a young intersex sex worker, Ponyboi, amidst confrontations of his past, family, cowboy-dream-sequences, and drug deals gone sideways. The neon-soaked visuals in the film shed light on the intersex community. Following the screening, Gallo shared with the crowd that Ponyboi started “deep in the depths of New Jersey. It started out of a desire to express the different ways in which I felt like an outsider in my life, through different intersecting identities: being intersex, being latinx, being from New Jersey… which has a special liminal relationship with reality…” the crowd let out some laughs, before Gallo continued, “I’m completely serious. Living next to New York where all your dreams are possible, it is the concept of being so close yet so far to the person you want to be and the life you want to live. And I think for a long time I was haunted by that. And it was actually a theater piece.” This piece of work has been a part of Gallo’s life for a decade, starting off as a theater piece, then short film, and eventually feature film. “Essentially, I’ve always wanted to create something that can give people hope. That it is okay to be uncertain about where you are in life… and that creating some intimacy with that uncertainty I think is the antidote to a lot of the despair we feel and the existential price of living.”
The Hollywood Reporter critic Lovia Gyarke described the film’s nomadic protagonist, Ponyboi, not getting “very far in terms of distance, but his Jersey adventure yields self-revelations and transcendent encounters. Ponyboi is packed with multiple threads, and maintains full control until a bumpy third act” (Gyarake). Without giving away spoilers, the narrative does get a bit jumbled and sporadic in the third act. Nonetheless, Gallo is strong as the film’s lead, “proving adept in a role that requires moving between fatal thrill and light comedy. The actor, whom viewers might know from the intersex documentary Every Body, teases out their character’s inner tension, bringing a heartbreaking texture to scenes like the one in which Ponyboi tries to get more testosterone at a pharmacy before hitting the road” (Gyarake). In the sequence that Ponyboi tries to get more hormones at a pharmacy, audiences bear witness to the kind of discrimination intersex people receive—even from supposed medical officials. All in all, Esteban Arango’s direction, the film’s psychedelic palette, Tommy Love’s production design, Lucy Hawkin’s costumes, and River Gallo’s performance bring the dark corners of New Jersey to life. Despite some bumps in the story, Ponyboi illuminates a radical narrative with a perspective on the Intersex community that will influence anyone who watches it.
Full credits:
Venue: Sundance Film Festival (U.S. Dramatic Competition)
Production companies: 30K FT, MarVista Entertainment
Cast: River Gallo, Dylan O'Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Murray Bartlett, Indya Moore
Director: Esteban Arango
Screenwriter: River Gallo
Producers: Trevor Wall, Adel "Future" Nur, River Gallo, Mark Ankner, Sade Clacken Joseph
Executive producers: Sonya Lunsford, Fernando Szew, Tony Vassiliadis, Hannnah Pillemer, Ani Kevork
Director of photography: Ed Wu
Production designer: Tommy Love
Costume designer: Lucy Hawkins
Editor: Hanna Park
Music: Cristobal Tapia de Veer
Casting director: Jessica Kelly, CSA
1 hour 43 minutes
“‘Ponyboi’ Review: River Gallo and Dylan O’Brien Star in a Sexy, Sweaty New Jersey Fever Dream” https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/ponyboi-review-river-gallo-dylan-obrien-1235807656/
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