Pillion
Director: Harry Lighton
Writer: Harry Lighton
Based on: Adam Mars-Jones‘ book Box Hill
Cast: Harry Melling, Alexander Skarsgård, Douglas Hodge, Lesley Sharp, Jake Shears
Seen on: 2.4.2026

Content Note: dubious consent

Plot:
Colin (Harry Melling) doesn’t really have much going for himself when he meets Ray (Alexander Skarsgård). Ray is pretty much the opposite of Colin in every way: a self-assured, gorgeous biker. When he gives Colin a time and place to meet, Colin can hardly believe it. When their relationship progresses into a full-fledged dom-sub relationship, Colin has to catch up quickly.

Pillion is marketed as a romance and that is one of the worst marketing decisions I have ever seen. But as long as you are not looking for romance, you are getting a very good and very thoughtful film about learning about yourself from a very bad relationship.

Pillion is a film for people who have at least a little knowledge about BDSM and kink, and have done a bit of thinking about consent. That is to say, it is not a film from the outside looking at the kink community and maybe flirting with it, it comes more from within the community. Seeing that in a more or less mainstream film is pretty amazing.

At the same time, it doesn’t spell out many things for the audience and coupled with the marketing that says Pillion is a romance, it means trouble for people who might be new to kink or have only a vague idea of it. Because what we get see here pretty clearly is the story of somebody who discovers his kinky, submissive side through a relationship with a pretty goddamn bad dom. Ray might be pretty, but he has no idea how to really establish consent, nor how to do the (emotional) aftercare.

That being said, it is one of the film’s charms that Ray is not an asshole per se, he is not an abuser, he just doesn’t know how to do it better. And when he realizes that he really can’t meet all of Colin’s need in the relationship, he sets him free (albeit in a way that is just as emotionally unavailable as the rest of his behavior). Both Colin and Ray learned something here.

Lighton has a good hand for the emotional turns in the story, and a great sense of comedic timing – because the film is often really funny, despite its difficult topic. It certainly has to win all the prizes for „best use of a dachshound in film“. It feels almost like a miracle that this is his first feature. In any case, it is a really good film.

Summarizing: excellent.