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“What is it Erykah Badu says? ‘Now keep in mind I’m an artist and I’m sensitive about my shit.’”
River Gallo is quoting a lyric from “Tyrone,” the defiant 1997 song often considered one of Badu’s best. Three days after our Zoom conversation, Gallo’s first movie—the propulsive thriller Ponyboi—will premiere at the Sundance FIlm Festival, indie Hollywood’s star-making nerve center. Even the toughest renegade would be nervous. Gallo, a queer activist last seen discussing their intersex experiences in last year’s documentary Every Body, is on the precipice of something big.
For good reason. Ponyboi, which Gallo wrote and stars in, has an electric charge. The title character is a multihyphenate—sex worker, laundromat custodian, drug dealer, Bruce Springsteen fan (“every Jersey girl is”)—whose already turbulent world is rocked when a heavyset mobster takes a second hit of meth and croaks on his watch. Knowing his unscrupulous boss (Dylan O’Brien) will flip, Ponyboi takes off running. What follows is a blend of Tangerine, David Lynch, the one-wild-night comedy Go, and, as Gallo enthusiastically describes it, a Lana Del Rey music video.