Sundance 2024 Review: “Ponyboi” – Stylistic with a Little Substance!

Having always lived in New Jersey, films that take place in the Garden State have always been intriguing, seeing how filmmakers choose to paint NJ, either being diehard loyals or those who would do anything to get away. Ponyboi takes place in a Jersey City type area at a sex working facility disguised as a laundromat. Ponyboi, (River Gallo) a sex worker under Vinny’s (Dylan O’Brien) business as a pimp, and Ponyboi’s best friend Angel (Victoria Pedretti) all find themselves in a sticky situation on Valentine’s Day when a drug deal gone wrong puts the mob on their tails. What could have stuck to its more outlandish concept, the film struggles to find its footing of Jersey authenticity with a backdrop of gangster shenanigans.

Related: Sundance 2024 Movie Review – “A Real Pain”

It becomes apparent from the beginning of Ponyboi that the root of the story is an exploration of an intersex individual with familial struggles, having a hardened relationship with both Ponyboi’s mother and father. Being the first feature length film to include an intersex character played by an intersex actor this element could not go unnoticed once the film started. However, the movie seems to be a story of unacceptance among families that is dropped into a gangster type of film, which felt immensely unbalanced tonally.

It’s possible to fuse both together but being the first film written by River Gallo, it needed a stronger screenwriter to push these themes together.  The beginning and end of the film held on to the film’s central themes but the entirety of the middle focused on this sex worker-drug deal storyline that would have worked a lot better on its own if the movie wasn’t trying to be two things at once. The ending, felt neutral where it seems the filmmakers tried harder to make a gritty mob film rather than what they began with.

The cinematography and tone in the film as it pertains to the vision Argango and Gallo were portraying to match New Jersey felt mismatched. The grimy visuals of the highways and laundromat felt authentic to the state but the film followed by utilizing a neon dreamlike cinematic design that felt more like it was trying to be Titane or Mandy in its design rather than stick to its own visions of New Jersey that it did decently in the beginning and end.

A dreamlike vision did not encapsulate or have much meaning to the story other than a stylistic choice that didn’t do a lot to further the intentions of the film. This film felt like it was trying to be authentic and dreamy simultaneously with no real reason. Ponyboi certainly feels like a first film that, although it has potential, makes a little too many creative choices that do not mesh well together. It will be interesting to see if the film gets picked up and by what studio but unfortunately it did not strike any memorable chords.

‘Ponyboi’ Rating – 1.5/5

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