Jersey Girls, Bruce Springsteen, and Vegas Dreams
With a baby on the way with Fluff N’ Stuff manager Angel (Victoria Pedretti, one of the film’s most captivating performances), aspiring gangster and Gaslighter extraordinaire Vinny cooks a cheaper «Tina» (also known as Crystal Methamphetamine), which he calls «proud Mary,» to maximize his patrons. It turns out that mobsters and crystal meth are a deadly cocktail, and Ponyboi once again gets the short end of the stick. In an attempt to escape from his abusive father and complicit mother, Ponyboi ran away from his life in Point Pleasant years before; now he must flee to escape Vinny’s wrath and the big Mafia Boss. With a bag full of stolen cash and a mysterious Drifter Cowboy Bruce (Murray Bartlett) by his side, Ponyboi sets his sights on Las Vegas, desperate to restock his testosterone hormones before embarking on a new life.
As he travels through New Jersey for testosterone, it becomes clear to both the audience and Ponyboi himself that this frantic chase is heavily influenced by both his father and the doctors who treated him during his youth. Hazy flashbacks involving cowboys, horses, Ponyboi’s father, my little pony figurines, a Ford van, and surgeons wielding the scalpel paint a blurry picture of Ponyboi’s past. Forced masculinity and unnecessary medical intervention on a healthy child born a little different, an issue that Gallo frequently addresses, sharing his personal experiences of being operated on as a minor, haunt the protagonist. Meanwhile, his father’s love for Ponyboi is evident in stories about him gifting his son, my little pony look-alikes to cheer him up, even though he «knew they were for girls.» His father comes across as a complex man full of contradictions, perhaps understanding the contradictions of Ponyboi’s intersex biology and gender-bending identity was something that simply…
There’s a certain crime thriller formula (think New Jersey accents, mafia bosses, pimps, and sex workers) that has become a beloved subgenre in the tradition of Hollywood’s new legend Martin Scorsese. However, the formula often yields a work riddled with clichés and tired character tropes. These formulaic qualities are the least interesting aspects of Esteban Arango’s Sundance Storner 2024 Ponyboi – written and starring intersex rights activist and award-winning GLAAD filmmaker River Gallo, as it extends far beyond a run-of-the-mill organized crime movie.
Based on Gallo’s 2019 short film of the same name, Ponyboi follows the trials and tribulations of a runaway intersex sex worker in post-9/11 New Jersey over the course of Valentine’s Day. Ponyboi (Gallo) works at a rundown laundromat called Fluff n’ Stuff, a front for a sex trafficking and drug operation. Ponyboi’s androgynous appearance includes a flat chest, lean build, curly shoulder-length hair, and an affinity for eyeliner, hoops, and electric blue acrylic nails. His clients and pimp boss Vinny (Dylan O’Brien) are captivated by his particular brand of beauty, clearly fetishizing this expansive gender intersex individual. This only adds to the confusing and downright harmful push-and-pull attitude Ponyboi has long exhibited. His Salvadoran Catholic father is a stereotypical macho cowboy, pushing him to be a «big strong man.» Others continuously pressure him to transition into a binary trans woman and take estrogen. But he doesn’t fit in either box, at all.
Born with an intersex variant called Anorchia, Ponyboi’s control over his identity and relationship with the past and future are challenged throughout the film, and it is certainly a pony worth riding. Featuring honorable intersex representation, nostalgic settings, and a dreamlike, almost surrealist atmosphere, Ponyboi shines brightly. It’s as if Paul Verhoeven, Sean Baker, and Paul Thomas Anderson collaborated to make a unique neo-noir that is timely and a tribute to the past.
