Ponyboi | |
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Directed by | Esteban Arango |
Written by | River Gallo |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Ed Wu |
Edited by | Hanna Park |
Music by | Cristobal Tapia de Veer |
Production companies |
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Release date |
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Running time | 103 minutes [2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Ponyboi is an 2024 American thriller directed by Esteban Arango, from a screenplay by River Gallo. It is based upon the 2019 short film of the same name by Gallo. It stars Gallo, Dylan O'Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Murray Bartlett and Indya Moore.
It had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024.
On Valentine's Day, in New Jersey, a young intersex sex worker is working at a laundromat with his pregnant best friend, Angel. He spends his nights with his secret lover and pimp, and the father of Angel's child, Vinnie. However, when a drug deal goes bad, he finds himself on the run from the mob. [3] [4]
In December 2022, it was announced River Gallo, Dylan O'Brien, Victoria Pedretti, and Indya Moore had joined the cast of the film, with Esteban Arango directing from a screenplay by Gallo. [5]
Principal photography concluded by December 2022. [6]
It had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024. [7]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 83% of 23 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10. [8] The film was positively reviewed in The Hollywood Reporter , which wrote that Gallo's screenplay "achieves something still rare in an industry unnecessarily confused about inclusion: Ponyboi seamlessly integrates its character’s challenges with identity into a propulsive story about a sex worker on the run." [9] Collider wrote that the film was "cinematic gold" that "would be nothing without River Gallo's performance". [10] Variety gave a more critical review, praising Gallo's acting but criticizing the writing as predictable and too reliant on clichés. [11]
Dylan Rhodes O'Brien is an American actor. His first major role was as Stiles Stilinski in the MTV supernatural series Teen Wolf (2011–2017). He achieved further prominence for his lead role in the science fiction Maze Runner trilogy (2014–2018), which led to more film appearances.
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Seven Graham is a British intersex activist, comedian, filmmaker and playwright, and drug addiction counsellor. He was a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and is a co-founder of the Amy Winehouse Foundation. In recognition of his intersex activism, The Independent on Sunday called him an LGBT "national treasure" and ranked him second in its 2015 "Rainbow List" of the most influential LGBT people in the UK. In 2017, he wrote and performed in a solo play called Angels are Intersex, and in 2018, he executive produced the short film Ponyboi.
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River Gallo is a Salvadoran-American filmmaker, actor, model, and intersex rights activist. They wrote, directed, and acted in the 2019 short film Ponyboi, which was the first film to feature an openly intersex actor playing an intersex person. Gallo adapted the screenplay for Ponyboi into a feature-length film by the same name, which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Gallo also played the lead role in the 2024 adaptation.
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