PONYBOI Trailer: River Gallo and Dylan O’Brien Star in Intersex Neo-Noir

Writer and actor River Gallo shines in Esteban Arango’s neo-noir, Ponyboi. Based on Gallo’s award-winning 2019 short film of the same name, it had its world premiere at Sundance 2024 and is finally set to arrive stateside early this summer. The film stars Gallo as an intersex sex worker on the run from the mob after a drug deal gone bad. The star-studded cast also includes Dylan O’Brien (whose 2025 has been off to a great start with Twinless), Victoria Pedretti, Murray Bartlett, Keith William Richards (Eephus), and Indya Moore. Ponyboi also won Best Narrative Feature at NewFest 2024.

FOX Entertainment Studios’ new Tideline banner is set to release the film on June 27, with a direct-to-audience theatrical distribution strategy developed by GATHR. The first official trailer has now arrived.

Here’s the official synopsis:

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 (Dylan O’Brien). With the help of a mysterious cowboy, Bruce (Murray Bartlett), Ponyboi journeys through New Jersey’s underbelly on a quest for freedom.

In her review from Sundance 2024, Bears Rebecca Fonte wrote, “The feature film affords the space to explore the complexities of a character who can be defined by neither their gender expression nor their survival…  Ponyboi is more of a classic heist gone wrong, a la Guy Ritchie or Tarantino — the world is just a backdrop to see good people in impossible circumstances… This is a film that continues to defy expectations. It slowly fills the room with explosive elements and then hands the plot a lighter. The story picks up steam as more and more complications arise, and with so much put into play, the audience can almost be forgiven for demanding all the elements come together for a smooth landing. But that’s not how life works. Ponyboi might escape the town, but he’ll never be able to escape the past. It is the first film to feature an openly intersex actor playing an intersex character. This is an important film from a singular voice and I’m so glad that it will be seen by a wide audience.”

Watch the official trailer below.

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