Pillion Review: It’s a Hell of a Ride

Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgard star in BDSM biker drama Pillion

In suburban Bromley as Christmas approaches, lonely parking attendant Colin (Harry Melling) is on a date set up for him by his well-meaning mother, who just wants him to find someone and get out of the house. The date doesn’t exactly go well – but his night takes an unexpected turn when Colin catches the eye of the impossibly handsome biker across the bar. The mysterious Ray (Alexander Skarsgard) invites Colin to meet him in town later that night, and the meek younger man soon finds he has no idea what he’s let himself in for.

With a little coaxing and a lot of very specific instruction, Colin soon becomes the enigmatic Ray’s submissive – cooking and cleaning for him, sleeping on the floor at the foot of his bed, and being used and abused in all sorts of kinky sexual scenarios. He’s also inducted into Ray’s queer BDSM biker gang, joining a wider group of submissive men being driven around the countryside in leathers as ‘pillions’ to their doms. The directionless Colin thrives in his new found community, finding self confidence and understanding that allows him to truly grasp who he is and what he wants out of life for the first time.

I watched Pillion as a double bill with another 2025 gay romantic drama, the purposefully weepy Paul Mescal/Josh O’Connor headed The History of Sound, and I never would have guessed that out of these two films it would be Pillion that more accurately portrayed tenderness – yet here we are. Harry Lighton’s debut feature is the most surprising film of the year – a freaky, kinky, sexy piece of subculture that also manages to be one of the most heartfelt romances I’ve seen in a long time. It is, dare I say it, sweet – while also having some of the most graphic sex scenes I’ve ever seen in a cinema.

Melling’s Colin is so charmingly awkward it’s impossible not to fall in love with him. He plays wonderfully against his supportive but clueless parents (played by Douglas Hodge and Lesley Sharp,) just about turning purple when they excitedly ask him at one point if he got a first kiss at the end of his date – blissfully unaware that their son has just met a man for sex in an alley behind a Primark. Lighton’s screenplay is both warm and melancholic at turns, but also refreshingly funny, pulling out all the comedy that naturally arises from the uncertain fumbles of a brand-new relationship – one thats heightened by it being so unconventional.

The impossibly chiselled, leather clad Skarsgard gives a terrific performance as the unknowable Ray – who gets significantly less character development but also exists in some way only as a tool and catalyst for Colin’s own journey of self-discovery. His role is the far more difficult of the two – the stoic, tough guy who is painfully, exactingly in charge at all times. He manages to convey delicate affection in scenes that to an outsider could be read as cold or unfeeling, marrying a measured, thoughtful performance with some truly intense moments.

There’s also not even a hint of a tragic backstory for any of the characters here, which feels like breath of fresh air in the short series of largely problematic films about BDSM relationships. Pillion doesn’t for a moment suggest that any of the people involved in this scene are there because of some great trauma, or because of anything deeply wrong with them – they’re just people who like what they like and see no reason not to indulge in it with like minded people.

It also doesn’t paint the scene as a monolith, as Colin’s experiences with the biker gang allow him to better understand his own desires and how to handle them. When things with his relationship with Ray may not be going as he would like – it’s in talking to other men and seeing how their relationships differ from his that he understands it’s possible to stand up for himself and ask for something different. While I’m led to understand that the book Pillion is based on – Box Hill – is a much broader story of the gang as a whole, the snippets we do get of them here are just brilliant.

A fresh, funny, shockingly kinky and surprisingly heartfelt romance, Pillion is an absolute marvel of a first feature from writer/director Harry Lighton. An honest look at an oft misrepresented scene and powered by two brilliantly brave performances, this is as much a bittersweet film about self-actualisation as it is an X-rated movie about sex. One of my favourites of the year.

Pillion was reviewed as part of the BFI London Film Festival 2025 and is out at cinemas nationwide now