Ponyboi 2024 Parents Guide

This is an updated Ponyboi (2025) Parents Guide

Ponyboi is rated R for “strong sexual content, nudity, drug use, pervasive language, and some violence”

The Story & What It Tries to Say

The story follows Ponyboi (Gallo), a young intersex sex worker and laundromat clerk living in the grungier, lonelier parts of New Jersey. His world is drenched in murky purples and blinking fluorescents, caught somewhere between survival and fantasy. Every day, he washes strangers’ clothes, pops hormone pills he can barely afford, and returns home to the suffocating control of his abusive boyfriend/pimp, Vinny (Dylan O’Brien, shedding every ounce of boy-next-door charm in favor of unhinged chaos).

It’s Valentine’s Day when everything unravels. A drug deal with a mobster client goes south fatally and Ponyboi finds himself accidentally in possession of a briefcase full of cash. It could be his escape ticket. So, he runs. But instead of freedom, the road leads him deeper into memory, trauma, and long-buried pain including a reconnection with his estranged mother and a chance encounter with Bruce (Murray Bartlett), a soft-spoken cowboy who may or may not be real.

At first glance, it’s a genre piece: crime, chase, noir. But underneath that scaffolding is something far more intimate a coming-of-age story for someone who was never allowed to come of age on their own terms.

It is about gender, cultural, spiritual identity and how difficult it is to create a space of yourself when even your body seems to be a story of another person.

What Ponyboi finally attempts to express is simple and profoundly deep: that all people should be seen, complete, and loved as they are. It does not always strike that note with grace, but when it does it is electric.

Performances & Characters

We will begin with River Gallo. Their acting is the backbone, the heart and the soul of this film. Gallo does not act as Ponyboi but is Ponyboi. All the glances, all the flinches, all the weary sighs are inhabited. They have a tiredness in their eyes that tells you everything, and yet a small flicker of rebellion, the sort that says, I am still here, despite whatever you have taken away.

It also helps that Gallo is intersex themselves a fact that lends the struggle of the character an additional level of authenticity that you simply cannot fake. However, they also add so much tenderness and suffering to the part that you can only hope that Ponyboi will succeed, even when he makes desperate, messy choices.

Dylan O Brien looks almost unrecognizable as Vinny. His performance is a teetering between charming and creepy, a dangerous manchild who is able to disguise his brutality with vulnerability just enough to make you uncomfortable. He is boisterous, theatrical, even cartoonish at moments but that is the point. He is a living example of toxic masculinity, all talk, and no real emotional spine.

Murray Bartlett, who has just starred in the powerhouse The White Lotus and The Last of Us, portrays Bruce with subtle tenderness. He is the opposite of Vinny, he is steady, nice, a person who listens before he does. Does he sound too good to be true? Maybe. However, even when Bruce is more of a symbol than a man, his presence gives Ponyboi a taste of what he has never experienced before: slow, quiet, and safe love.

Angel is played by Victoria Pedretti, who gives a crisp and rough performance in a role that might have been one-dimensional. She is the friend, the competitor, the surrogate family of Ponyboi, and she is able to portray both the resentment and the sisterly protection with a true grace.

Direction, Visuals & Pacing

Stylistically, Ponyboi is a visual standout. Esteban Arango leans hard into atmosphere dripping in moody lighting, smoky alleyways, and surreal bursts of fantasy that hint at Ponyboi’s inner world. There’s a dreamlike quality to much of the film, as though we’re floating just outside of reality which makes sense, given that Ponyboi himself often feels like a ghost in his own life.

Ed Wu, the cinematographer, works magic with very little and turns laundromats and run-down motels into locations of weird beauty. The visual language of the movie changes with the location of Ponyboi in his mind: dirty when he is stuck and bright and soft when he is given a chance of hope.

Said that, the pace is not always tight. The middle part, especially, is a little meandering, it is not sure whether it wants to be a chase film, a character study, or a romantic drama. And the tonal changes, though sometimes deliberate, are shocking. One minute you are in the middle of a noir-like thriller and the next you are witnessing a touching fantasy scene under the gentle moonlight. However, weirdly enough, the clutter is somehow effective. It is the tale of a person who has never been in a box and therefore why should the movie?

Ponyboi (2025) Parents Guide

Violence & Intensity: There is tense, threatening moments linked to mob activity and drug gambling, as well as a few moderate physical altercations. There’s no excessive gore, but the psychological tension—fear, danger, uncertainty—is palpable

Language: Expect unfiltered, adult conversation. The script is littered with strong profanity—including multiple uses of the F-word, along with plenty of explicit slurs and raw dialogue that reflects the harsh reality of the characters’ lives.

Sexual Content & Nudity: Sex is inextricably woven into the plot. Scenes include sex work, implied transactional encounters, and brief nudity—some explicit and emotionally charged. These aren’t romanticized; they’re lived-in and sometimes uncomfortable, often used to explore themes of exploitation, autonomy, and identity.

Drugs & Substance Use: Drug use is central to the story: characters deal, ingest, and struggle with substances throughout. Alcohol and cigarettes also appear. This is far from casual or background—it’s deeply tied to plot and character choices.

Recommended: Adults & Older Teens (18+): Appropriate, provided they’re emotionally mature. This film invites difficult conversations—but may be triggering for some.

Conclusion:

Ponyboi is not an ideal movie and that is why it will remain with you. It is rough, it is ambitious, it is sometimes awkward, but it is alive. It has the balls to present a story that has never truly been presented on screen before and it does so with heart, style and a very personal voice.

Unless you are a person who likes smooth form and tidy story lines, this could be exasperating. However, in case you are willing to be a bit more dirty, braver something that seems lived Ponyboi will kick you in the gut.

It is a love letter to the outcasts. A ballad to those who never had a map, but chose to make their way back home.