One crazy night or even one crazy day is a genre of films that usually involves a story that takes place within a period of 24 hours or less. Some take place within 12 hours of less. Some might even take place in real time. Often, this genre is a subset of other genres like horror or action. This year, we've seen quite a few in this vein, including One of Them Days (2025), which was a wacky comedy. There was also examples like Flight Risk (2025), Drop (2025), Warfare (2025), Sinners (2025) and Fight or Flight (2025). There was even a film this year that took place all on Valentine's Day. It was the slasher comedy, Heart Eyes (2025). I mention it because this film, directed by Esteban Arango, and written by River Gallo, also takes place all on Valentine's Day. Obviously, there was a romantic comedy called Valentine's Day (2010) that was part of a series of one-crazy-day films by Garry Marshall. Arango's film here isn't as light and as airy as anything Marshall ever cooked up. It has a way more exciting plot and is more of a character study of a type of person who's not really had a chance to shine in any mainstream work.
Gallo, in their feature debut, stars as "Ponyboi." Their birth name is never spoken. Ponyboi is a sex worker who presents as female but actually uses he / him pronouns. Thanks to some news that is heard on a radio, Governor Jim McGreevey is still in office, as the head of New Jersey. McGreevey held that title from 2002 to 2004, which means that this film is set more than 20 years ago, prior to the advent of smartphones and social media, and when public conversations about transgender people or issues related to trans-people were virtually non-existent. Because Ponyboi is pejoratively referred to as a "chick with a dick," it's assumed that he's transgender. Yet, that isn't the case.
Dylan O'Brien (Twinless and Teen Wolf) co-stars as Vinny, a drug dealer and pimp who runs a laundromat that he uses as his base of operations. He's almost the typical, Jersey boy. He's also the typical White boy who pretends to be a stereotypical Black guy, one who thinks for example he can casually use the N-word. He can be very charming and he definitely has a swagger to him that can be alluring. Yes, he can be sexy, but also very slimy and scary to some degree. He has connections to the Italian mob and when it comes to the mafia, he probably gets a little too big for his britches. He gets a little too greedy or a little too ambitious. To his credit, he's not transphobic, per se, but he is the one pimping Ponyboi, so he respects Ponyboi only as much as he can extract money out of Ponyboi.
Ponyboi most likely came to work for Vinny because he was accepting of Ponyboi's identity. It probably helped that Ponyboi is sexually attracted to Vinny, but, as the film progresses, we learn that not everyone has been accepting of Ponyboi's identity. At the same time, we come to realize that Ponyboi might not exactly be sure of what his identity truly is. At one point, Vinny says disparagingly that Ponyboi can't decide on being a boy or a girl. However, it's rare that a film protagonist has been a person who could identify as both and not just socially but biologically. Yes, this film is about an intersex person.
Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus and Looking) plays Bruce, a country boy and cowboy from Las Vegas. He's visiting Jersey for some unknown reason. He's very handsome, very smooth and very charming. He's able to serenade Ponyboi with Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire." He drives a vintage Ford Mustang. He's seemingly salvation for Ponyboi who wants to get out of town and out of the state. He's a bright spot in a lot of darkness that arises.
Victoria Pedretti (You and The Haunting of Hill House) rounds out the cast as Angel, the girlfriend of Vinny. She's also pregnant with his baby. She's a Jersey girl through and through. She knows that Vinny is a drug dealer and pimp. She's okay with his criminality. She's okay with it because it benefits her. Also, she believes that he's dedicated to her and would never hurt her. She is friends with Ponyboi. It seems as if they grew up together. Ponyboi says he's from Point Pleasant Beach on the Jersey shore. His identity as an intersex person is as much the focus of this film as the friendship between Ponyboi and Angel.
For a lot of intersex or even transgender people, often their identity as a child is fine and pure. As an adult, certain societal pressures can push an intersex person to conform to one gender or sex. The same was true of Ponyboi. As a result, the trajectory of this film is in a lot of ways about Ponyboi returning to his childhood roots and to that purity before all of those societal and even familial pressures affected him. Ponyboi's parents are Latino immigrants from El Salvador who are very Catholic. They seem as if they might have been the most bigoted, or maybe not, but Ponyboi has to confront that at that end.
Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, drug use, language and violence.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 43 mins.
Available on VOD.