Alexander Skarsgard, BFI London Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, comedy, Douglas Hodge, drama, film festivals, Harry Lighton, Harry Melling, Jake Shears, Lesley Sharp, LGBTQ, movies, New York Film Festival, Pillion, reviews, Telluride Film Festival
February 3, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Harry Lighton
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in England, the comedy/drama film “Pillion” (based on the 1975 novel “Box Hill”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A socially awkward loner gets involved in a volatile BDSM relationship as a submissive partner to the dominant and mysterious leader of a motorcycle group.
Culture Audience: “Pillion” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and are interested in watching well-acted and skillfully written movies about BDSM relationships from the perspectives of gay men.
The well-acted comedy/drama “Pillion” is more than a movie about a submissive man involved with a mysterious dominant lover in a BDSM relationship. It’s a bittersweet story about emotional vulnerabilities when giving and receiving love. The movie treats the non-traditional aspects of this relationship without judgment and with adult maturity. (A pillion is the passenger seat for a motorcycle.)
Written and directed by Harry Lighton, “Pillion” is Lighton’s feature-film directorial debut. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and subsequently screened at several other film festivals in 2025, including the Telluride Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival. “Pillion” is based on Adam Mars-Jones’ 1975 novel “Box Hill,” with intriguing changes in the movie.
Both the movie and the book take place in a suburban England (the movie does not name the city), but “Box Hill” takes place in the 1970s over a period of several years, whereas “Pillion” takes place in the mid-2020s over a period of several months. Another big change from the book to the movie: A major character dies in the book, but this person does not die in the movie.
Lighton gives a superb cinematic adaptation of the book by adding unique elements that are realistic, with the right balance of heartbreaking and heartwarming. A movie with this type of sexual content could easily be exploitative, but Lighton gives “Pillion” a matter-of-fact and non-judgmental tone when showing a gay BDSM lifestyle, which is rarely the focus of mainstream movies. “Pillion” has an attitude of: “This is how some people live. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to watch it.”
“Pillion” is told from the perspective of protagonist Colin Smith (played by Harry Melling), a socially awkward gay man in his mid-30s. Colin is openly gay, and he is very inexperienced when it comes to dating. Colin, who works as parking meter enforcer, lives with his parents Pete (played by Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (played by Lesley Sharp), who are completely accepting of Colin being gay. Peggy is so accepting, she tries to set up Colin on blind dates.
In the beginning of the movie, it’s the Christmas holiday season, and Colin is doing something that he loves to do: He sings in a barbershop quartet, which is performing in a cafe pub at the moment. During this performance, Colin notices a tall and handsome stranger dressed in motorcycle biker gear. This stranger, who is about 10 to 15 years older than Colin, is sitting by himself.
Colin is immediately attracted to him. After the performance, Colin extends his hands to greet the customers, but the stranger makes a point of ignoring Colin. The stranger doesn’t seem interested in talking to anyone. Colin is still intrigued, but he’s too shy to start a conversation with him. The stranger seems to be aware that Colin is staring at him.
Colin sees the stranger again by chance one night, when Colin is walking his family’s Dachshund near a business district street. The stranger is walking a Rottweiler. Colin will eventually find out that the stranger’s name is Ray (played by Alexander Skarsgård), who is also gay or queer. Ray is not from the U.K., and he has a hard-to-place accent that could be American, Canadian, or the accent of a Western European who speaks English very well.
Colin tries to nonchalantly follow Ray, but Ray notices that Colin is following him. The power dynamics in their relationship begin immediately. Ray orders Colin to follow him into a dark alley. Colin willingly obliges. Ray takes off his shirt and reveals that he’s wearing bondage gear. Ray asks Colin, “What am I going to do with you?” Colin replies, “Whatever you want, really.”
Ray then zips down his pants and demands that Colin give him oral sex. Colin willingly obliges, but he almost chokes during the act and makes profuse apologies. It’s the beginning of their BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism) relationship. It’s also the first time that Colin has ever had this type of relationship. It isn’t long before Colin moves into Ray’s home, a non-descript, middle-class house that is less than a half-hour drive from where Colin’s parents live.
“Pillion” has some comedic moments about Colin’s awkwardness in navigating this relationship, but the movie doesn’t do it in a mean-spirited way. Colin and Ray have an “opposites attract” relationship that, on the surface, works well for the BDSM dynamic. Colin enjoys being a complete submissive at all times to Ray, who enjoys his role as the dominant partner.
From the start of the relationship, Ray sets boundaries that would be deal breakers for most people, but not for Colin: Ray refuses to show signs of affection to Colin, such as kissing, hugging, cuddling or holding hands. Ray also won’t tell Colin what Ray does for money. Ray never mentions having a job, and it’s unknown what Ray’s source of income is.
In the beginning of their relationship, Ray also won’t share a bed with Colin when they sleep. Ray expects Colin to sleep on the floor, sometimes on the couch, or on a bed in another room. And it’s not unusual for Ray to treat Colin like the family dog.
Ray says that Colin should not expect Ray to be monogamous. Colin also cannot be possessive or curious about what Ray does when Ray spends time apart from Colin. Colin cannot snoop into other areas of Ray’s life, such as who his family members are and what Ray’s personal background is. Needless to say, Ray also doesn’t want Colin to describe Ray as a “boyfriend” or to say the word “love” about their relationship.
Ray is the leader of a BDSM gay biker group of motorcylists. He’s considered an “alpha male leather daddy,” not just with this group but also with other gay biker groups who know about Ray. (Jake Shears, also known as the lead singer of Scissor Sisters, has a cameo role as a submissive biker named Kevin.)
Colin feels insecure because he knows that Ray is considered much better-looking and more of a “catch” than Colin. And so, Colin does whatever it takes to please Ray. In order to fit in better with this biker group of dominants and submissives, Colin ends up shaving off all of his hair and wearing a padlock on a chain necklace, which is what most of the group’s other submissives have done too.
Ray tests the levels of humiliation that Colin might tolerate to see how “loyal” Colin is to Ray. Colin seems to be okay with acts of degradation that are done to Colin in private and are part of their sex play. But there comes a time when Ray does something in public to humiliate Colin. And it’s a turning point in their relationship.
After a while, Colin wants more than Ray might be willing to give. Colin, who has fallen in love with Ray, wants some indication that Ray loves Colin. If Ray wants to push the boundaries of humiliating Colin, then Colin wants something in return by pushing the boundaries of what makes Ray uncomfortable: showing emotional vulnerability, especially when it comes to love and romance.
From the outside looking in, the complicated issues of power, control and sex in a BDSM relationship might be too confusing to those not in the relationship. Colin’s parents, especially his mother Peggy, see obvious indications that Ray is bossy and rude to Colin. And she doesn’t like it one bit, because she thinks it’s non-consensual and abusive.
A darkly comedic scene in the movie takes place when Ray has dinner with Colin and Colin’s parents for the first time at the Smith family home because Peggy insisted on it. It’s a battle of two strong personalities (Ray and Peggy) that not only has a lot to do with Peggy being protective of her “mama’s boy” son Colin but also about Peggy’s fear of losing Colin to a partner whom she sees as possibly abusive. Ray is very uncomfortable with being part of family dinners, so it’s a major compromise in his relationship with Colin that he agreed to be at this dinner.
Melling gives a terrifically nuanced performance as Colin, who is caught up in the thrills and the agony of Colin’s relationship with Ray. Skarsgård gives a more difficult performance as the inscrutable and often-unlikable Ray, who tries not to let his true feelings show, but those true feelings occasionally reveal themselves in subtle ways in body language and tone of voice. Sharp is absolutely wonderful in her role as outspoken Peggy, who has her own personal issues to deal with because Peggy is in recovery from cancer.
“Pillion” will undoubtedly make most viewers root for Colin to have his love reciprocated by Ray. However, the movie has a lot to say about relationship expectations: Can you love someone for who that person is, or is the love about who you want that person to be? During his relationship with Ray, Colin discovers that he wants to be a submissive in a BDSM relationship. The movie ultimately shows Colin finding out that being in this type of relationship doesn’t mean that Colin has to lose himself and suppress what he wants that will make himself happy.
A24 will release “Pillion” in select U.S. cinemas on February 6, 2026. The movie was released in U.K. cinemas on November 28, 2025.