After making a splash at the Sundance Film Festival back in 2024, “Ponyboi” is gearing up for a summer release, and a new trailer for the sex worker drama, directed by Esteban Arango and written by lead star River Gallo, has made its way to us.
Heading to theaters on June 27 just in time for Pride month, Gallo (who identifies as intersex, non-binary, and trans) plays the titular Ponyboi, a New Jersey sex worker that ends up caught up in a drug deal gone wrong with Dylan O’Brien playing his abusive pimp as the events of the film take place over Valentine’s Day.
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The rest of the cast features Victoria Pedretti, Indya Moore, and Murray Bartlett as a mysterious cowboy.
“‘Ponyboi’ will not only empower the intersex community but all marginalized people. My goal is to make a film for BIPOC, the LGBTQIA+ community, and anyone who has ever felt they didn’t belong. At its core, ‘Ponyboi’ is about taking back control of one’s power, finding redemption, and the journey of healing oneself. In the film, Ponyboi must reckon with his past to break free from the self-imposed chains bonded to a destructive life. By the end of the film, I want audiences to feel transcended beyond their suffering, where self-actualization is possible,” Gallo said in a statement and expressed how audiences should experience the film.
An official logline for “Ponyboi” via FOX Entertainment Studios’ Tideline and GATHR:
Unfolding over the course of a single day, a young sex worker named Ponyboi (Gallo) is thrown into chaos when a drug deal goes wrong, forcing him to go on the run from the mob and his abusive pimp (O’Brien). With the help of a mysterious cowboy, Bruce (Bartlett), “Ponyboi” journeys through New Jersey’s underbelly on a quest for freedom.
The Playlist reviewed the pic featuring a “unique hero” when it screened at Sundance and you can read that review right here.
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You can watch the new trailer for “Ponyboi” below.