Pillion is a film about a gay BDSM relationship that’s at equal turns funny, horrifying and surprisingly romantic. This is a film that walks a very tight rope but manages to remain upright. The feature debut film by British director Harry Lighton, who’s 33, is an adaptation of Adam Mars-Jones’ novel Box Hill.
Harry Melling, late of the Harry Potter movies, plays Colin, a meek young gay guy who lives with his parents in the English town of Bromley, singing along with his dad in a barbershop quartet and working as a male meter maid.
His parents are accepting of him being gay, but considerably less understanding of his specific, submissive proclivities. This is drawn into clarity when Colin starts dating Ray (Alexander Skarsgard), a dominant partner who’s not only a biker, but part of a motorcycle club evenly divided between doms and subs. (“Pillion” is the term for the person who sits on the backseat of a motorcycle.) Ray invites Colin over and makes him cook every meal while sleeping on the floor, among other such acts.
We’re meant to ask whether or not the relationship is a healthy dom/sub dynamic, or abusive, or in the gray area between them. But the film’s conclusion, in its third and best act, is, I think, the right one, which shifts the film more into coming-of-age territory. There’s a certain section that’s so perfect that I wasn’t sure if it was a dream sequence or not. As someone whose life experience is about 180 degrees away from this movie’s world, I bought it.
Both leads are fantastic, with Melling nailing all the nuances of a tricky part. Skarsgard continues his recent hot streak; that same week, I saw him in Pillion, as the director villain in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, and as probably the year’s strongest SNL host. I also liked Oliver Coates’ score, which mixes in some pop music; the film is part of the recent boomlet in use of Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now,” which was also on one of the last episodes of Stranger Things, and the Hulu show Paradise.
Pillion is an A24 film, and the only thing I don’t understand is the release strategy. It debuted at Cannes last spring and played some fall festivals. It got a qualifying release and is therefore a 2025 film despite not really competing for awards, and here it is opening in February.