Pillion Review:
Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling
Shine in a Sexy, Sentimental Dom/Sub Biker Rom-Com
CANNES FILM FESTIVAL - UN CERTAIN REGARD
Words by Alex Secilmis 19 May 2025
Shine in a Sexy, Sentimental Dom/Sub Biker Rom-Com
CANNES FILM FESTIVAL - UN CERTAIN REGARD
Words by Alex Secilmis 19 May 2025
Opening with an awkward Christmas hook-up, Pillion, the debut film from writer/director Harry Lighton, begins like a racy, queer storyline out of Love Actually. But it’s more than that. It’s at once a raw, intimate portrait of a BDSM relationship and a riotous crowd-pleaser that went down a treat at Cannes. Offering a different kind of British Rom-Com, the film deconstructs that hallowed institution, dresses it up in leather, and sends it speeding down the highway.
Adapted from the novel Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones, Pillion follows the timid Colin (Harry Melling) and his sexual awakening after a stoic biker named Ray (Alexander Skarsgård) takes him on as his submissive. Their first meeting is more curt than cute. Colin is a traffic warden who moonlights as one fourth of a barbershop quartet. After a performance one fateful Christmas Eve in South-East London, the bullish Ray cuts him off mid-order at the pub counter. With a silent command, Ray makes Colin gather his coins to pay for his crisps, leaving a dainty Christmas card as a reward with instructions to meet him the next day.
The terms of their relationship soon become clear. Ray makes Colin sleep on the floor; he orders him to cook (with Skarsgård making a slight adjustment to the “privacy, pussy, pasta” motto that defined his role on Succession); and he sticks him in an ass-exposing leotard for some sexy wrestling. Much of the sharp comedy comes from Colin’s unfaltering politeness in the face of Ray’s degrading treatment. When Ray brusquely instructs him to buy a butt plug, Colin cordially responds, “Lovely, that sounds like a plan.”
While he already impressed as Edgar Allan Poe in The Pale Blue Eye, Melling is a revelation as a sweet-natured submissive who comes into his own the more he makes his Dom, well, come. Befitting the genre, there’s an almost Hugh Grant-esque charm to his performance, and he conveys Colin’s desire with a moving earnestness. Meanwhile, Skarsgård is terrifically imposing as an uber-tough biker. He expertly gives glimpses into Ray’s closely guarded feelings with the slightest change in facial expression or body language.
The film has many, many intimate scenes, reports of which have already set the internet ablaze. In a conventional heterosexual Rom-Com, sex is a plot device: a milestone reached late in the game. Here, the raw, naturalistic sex scenes are the basis of their relationship, bringing pleasure, comedy, and tenderness in equal measure as Colin and Ray grow closer. It would be a refreshing development for any romantic movie, but it’s all the more delightful to be happening in a queer one.
Pillion is an exciting film for its representation of not just queerness, but a queer BDSM relationship. There is no hint of shame in Colin’s arc, and his parents (played with aplomb by Douglas Hodge and Lesley Sharpe) are entirely supportive of their son’s sexuality and delighted that he’s dating a biker (“You can borrow your dad’s leather jacket!” his mother suggests). Moreover, the Dom/Sub dynamic is not portrayed as a phase to eventually grow out of in favour of a more traditional relationship. Instead, the conflict comes when Colin starts to struggle with Ray’s near-total lack of affection. He still loves being a Sub, but he’s interested in revising their terms.
First-time director Harry Lighton is one-to-watch, Melling a surefire star on the rise, and Skarsgård a leather-clad powerhouse showing a new side to his talent. Horny, hilarious, and even heartwarming, Pillion is a runaway hit.
Adapted from the novel Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones, Pillion follows the timid Colin (Harry Melling) and his sexual awakening after a stoic biker named Ray (Alexander Skarsgård) takes him on as his submissive. Their first meeting is more curt than cute. Colin is a traffic warden who moonlights as one fourth of a barbershop quartet. After a performance one fateful Christmas Eve in South-East London, the bullish Ray cuts him off mid-order at the pub counter. With a silent command, Ray makes Colin gather his coins to pay for his crisps, leaving a dainty Christmas card as a reward with instructions to meet him the next day.
The terms of their relationship soon become clear. Ray makes Colin sleep on the floor; he orders him to cook (with Skarsgård making a slight adjustment to the “privacy, pussy, pasta” motto that defined his role on Succession); and he sticks him in an ass-exposing leotard for some sexy wrestling. Much of the sharp comedy comes from Colin’s unfaltering politeness in the face of Ray’s degrading treatment. When Ray brusquely instructs him to buy a butt plug, Colin cordially responds, “Lovely, that sounds like a plan.”
While he already impressed as Edgar Allan Poe in The Pale Blue Eye, Melling is a revelation as a sweet-natured submissive who comes into his own the more he makes his Dom, well, come. Befitting the genre, there’s an almost Hugh Grant-esque charm to his performance, and he conveys Colin’s desire with a moving earnestness. Meanwhile, Skarsgård is terrifically imposing as an uber-tough biker. He expertly gives glimpses into Ray’s closely guarded feelings with the slightest change in facial expression or body language.
The film has many, many intimate scenes, reports of which have already set the internet ablaze. In a conventional heterosexual Rom-Com, sex is a plot device: a milestone reached late in the game. Here, the raw, naturalistic sex scenes are the basis of their relationship, bringing pleasure, comedy, and tenderness in equal measure as Colin and Ray grow closer. It would be a refreshing development for any romantic movie, but it’s all the more delightful to be happening in a queer one.
Pillion is an exciting film for its representation of not just queerness, but a queer BDSM relationship. There is no hint of shame in Colin’s arc, and his parents (played with aplomb by Douglas Hodge and Lesley Sharpe) are entirely supportive of their son’s sexuality and delighted that he’s dating a biker (“You can borrow your dad’s leather jacket!” his mother suggests). Moreover, the Dom/Sub dynamic is not portrayed as a phase to eventually grow out of in favour of a more traditional relationship. Instead, the conflict comes when Colin starts to struggle with Ray’s near-total lack of affection. He still loves being a Sub, but he’s interested in revising their terms.
First-time director Harry Lighton is one-to-watch, Melling a surefire star on the rise, and Skarsgård a leather-clad powerhouse showing a new side to his talent. Horny, hilarious, and even heartwarming, Pillion is a runaway hit.