Pillion (2025) Review: Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård Power a Bold, Darkly Funny Debut

Rating: ★★★★☆

Pillion (2025)

Directed by: Harry Lighton

Written by: Harry Lighton

Starring: Harry Melling, Alexander Skarsgård

Release Date: November 2025

What “Pillion” Really Means

I’ve never heard of a pillion before, probably because I’ve never been on a motorcycle. A pillion is the passenger seat, essentially, on a motorcycle—directly behind the driver and completely at their mercy. It’s a metaphor so simple and elegant that you’d miss it if you didn’t bother asking what a pillion really is.

The metaphor fits Harry Melling’s Colin perfectly, a man completely at the mercy of a god-like figure: Alexander Skarsgård’s Ray, an impossibly handsome gay man who lures Colin out of his shell and into a rough but fully complicit sexual relationship.

A Chance Encounter That Changes Everything

Before meeting Ray properly in the story of Pillion, he is viewed in that god-like manner—fully bedecked in tight motorcycle leather, weaving in and out of traffic with the well-earned confidence of a man who’s never truly faced an obstacle that his 6’4”, muscular frame and chiseled jaw could not completely overwhelm.

We see Ray as he races past our protagonist, Colin (Melling), languishing in the back of his parents’ car as he timidly approaches a bar and a blind date set up by his well-meaning but clueless parents.

While the blind date blathers on, Colin can’t take his eyes off a scene in the corner of the pub where Ray sits in a circle of fellow dominant gay men, leather-clad and holding various young men in states of rapturous attention from the floor beneath them.

The Dom-Sub dynamic is never spoken aloud, but it doesn’t take a degree in semiotics to understand the dynamic and the sexual energy it radiates—energy that completely captivates Colin.

Colin: An Unlikely Submissive

Painfully shy and awkward, Colin is both likely and unlikely as a partner for Ray.

On one hand, he has the timid, easily manipulated manner of a submissive. On the other hand, he’s not as typically pretty or polished as the stereotypical “twink,” the aesthetic some assign to particular gay men of slight build and eager-to-please attitude.

Colin appears both submissive and so genuinely milquetoast average that he’d sooner run away than actually engage in the kind of sexual dynamic he secretly desires.

The Rough Beginning of a Relationship

When Ray finally breaks through to Colin, it is a rough scene—illicit, one-way sex in a dirty alley, few words and no pleasantries. Colin is pressed to his knees and commanded to perform whether he wants to or not.

He clearly wants to, but he has the reasonable hang-ups that most of polite society shares when it comes to sex.

This moment is urgently important for both Ray and Colin. If Colin can get over this particular hang-up, the two may have a shot at a relationship—albeit one created entirely on Ray’s terms.

A Bold and Darkly Humorous Debut

Pillion was written and directed by newcomer Harry Lighton, and it is a bold, daring, and darkly humorous debut.

Lighton leans into the kink while never losing sight of his characters. Think Fifty Shades of Grey if it had a shred of authentic human emotion. The film isn’t afraid to go to uncomfortable places and press the boundaries of the audience in a way similar to—though definitely not identical to—the way Colin’s own boundaries are pushed.

Rather, our boundaries are pushed just enough to make Colin sympathetic beyond his basic decency and general charisma.

We understand how Colin feels: the heady mix of desire, fear, and excitement that is intoxicating and terrifying all at once.

A Story About the Relationships That Change Us

This sets us up for the turn in the third act—a moment when the wild fantasy life threatens to become real and Colin emerges fully formed as his own man for the very first time, and in his own unique way.

On a fundamental level, removing for the moment the kink and the lifestyle differences of the characters, Pillion is about a pivotal moment in life: a relationship most, if not all of us, have experienced that forever changes how we view intimacy and connection.

Gay or straight, most of us have been in a relationship that changed us—taught us something important and prepared us for whatever the rest of life has to offer.

Some of those relationships last. Others are fleeting.

But the universal truth lies in what we learned and how that shaped the rest of our lives.

You don’t have to be a BDSM-loving motorcycle rider to relate to the notion of a relationship that alters the trajectory of your romantic life. When you dig deep into the heart of Pillion, that relatable truth is what makes the film so potent and memorable—beyond the chiseled abs and granite jaw of Alexander Skarsgård’s all-too-perfect exterior.

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Pillion 2025, Harry Melling, Alexander Skarsgård, Harry Lighton, LGBTQ films, BDSM themes in film, indie film reviews, 2025 movie reviews, dark comedy films, Vocal Media movie reviews