Directed By Harry Lighton

Starring – Harry Melling, Alexander Skarsgard, Douglas Hodge

The Plot – Colin (Melling), a weedy wallflower letting life pass him by, meets Ray (Skarsgard), the impossibly handsome leader of a motorbike club, who then takes him on as his submissive. Ray uproots Colin from his dreary suburban life, introducing him to a community of kinky, queer bikers and taking all sorts of virginities along the way. But as Colin steps deeper into Ray’s world of rules and mysteries, he begins to question whether the life of a 24/7 submissive is for him. Has he found his calling, or simply swapped one form of suffocation for another?

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Pillion | Official Trailer HD | A24

POSITIVES

The warmth from Valentine’s Day kindling might’ve since sacrificed itself in the blustery chilliness of Winter’s subzero temperatures, but the magnetizing dynamic of Melling and Skarsgard as two strangers involved in an ice-breaking bondage relationship of their own certainly has the power to thaw out the hearts of its frostbitten audience, with Lighton conjuring something feverishly charming that simultaneously feels sweet, salacious, and all together seductive in this insightfully eye-opening deconstruction of societal misconception. As to where movies like Fifty Shades of Grey or Babygurl have articulated BDSM as something of a character flaw to those involved, either in toxic traits or as a manifestation of past traumas, Lighton approaches it with the kind of respect and responsibility that enlightens outsider audiences to a side of unmatched devotion between those involved that highlights its psychologies every bit as much as its physicality, outlining an unapologetically honest and up-front experience through the eyes of Colin that serves as his coming out every bit as much as it does his coming into. Because of such, this absolutely will not be a film for anyone with even the most tender trepidation towards gay interactions or extremely kinky lifestyles, with the couple’s journey to erotic fulfilment sifting through periodic physical instances that cater exclusively to the power dynamics of dominator and submissive, with everything from the body language of the performances, to the varied demeanors in the dialogue, to even the transparency of the framing finding unique methods of playing into the tension and spontaneity of the honeymoon period between them. For his direction, Lighton doesn’t exactly sugar coat the material for the tender tummies of his audience, but surprisingly he also toes a tasteful line towards depiction that never feels excessively exploitative towards graphic nudity as a means of unnecessary enticement into this world, featuring some candidly gushy cinematography from Nick Morris that instead values more of the windows to the soul between its characters conveying deeper and more meaningfully internalized sentiments between them, and though Colin and Ray couldn’t be any more opposite, physically or mentally, there’s a level of commitment from each character that makes their evidential love transcend the conventional laws of attraction with something far more fittingly balanced to what each of them are seeking, allowing for a beautifully effortless illustration of their spiritual bond that truly all of us should be seeking, in some form or another. Speaking of Morris’ influence over the picture, I love that so much of his unsexual photography lends itself effortlessly to this fantastically enamoring approach that feels introspective of Colin’s wants and needs, with slow-motion frame rates conveying almost a glowing daydream essence to sequences involving the couple far from the dramatic entanglements of their determined dynamic. These are the moments when it feels like the movie attempts to carve out a slice of comfortability for Colin’s continued efforts of vulnerability that could legitimately be transpiring before our very eyes, or even examples of his mind continuously running away from him, and towards what he sees as the ideal dynamic, and though Morris injection of beauty and elegance into a world so overwhelmed by the obligatory is purely temporary, it does elicit a sweetly endearing side to the maturity of the material that makes it all the easier to emphasize and invest within Colin’s unconventional journey to finding a love of his own, regardless of the preconceived opinions of the audience on the bondage lifestyle, serving not only as the ideal beauty in connection that makes some of his situational struggles along the way feel justifiably endearing, even at the cost of alienating his parents, but also one that redefines his obsession for Ray towards feeling far more valuable than just a physical attraction spawned by an abruptly unforeseen meeting between them. The script, also adapted by Lighton, from the Adam Mars-Jones novel, Box Hill, takes some big swings in the expansion of its admirable ambition, in everything from humanizing a fetish-based community without shame or bizarre bewilderment, while also cleverly deconstructing thematic impulses pertaining to everything from agency’s foundation in a relationship, to male masculinity, proving that the film has plenty to say between its periodic bouts of physical emasculation from Ray to Colin, in order to keep audiences hooked to the journey of its 102-minute exploration. While the film’s frankly astute personality works wonders towards crafting a tonal safe space that openly welcomes levity within the laughable lunacy of this fish-out-of-water perspective of sorts that drives Colin’s desire into this inexperienced underworld of pleasure, its greatest strength of connection towards maintaining an audience resides in the unraveled reality of this stained subculture typically utilized for shock value as a powerfully boosting means of self-discovery for those dejected few to find a comfortable community that they can feel less alone in, unloading with it an air of endearing inclusivity that not only proves that Pillion has its heart in the right place within its unconventional love story, but also the advantageous fortitude of educating the audience on the rare topic that so very few of them legitimately know about, giving us the rare combination of being entertaining and insightful, without one weighing down the magnitude of the other. Above all else, none of this would work without the surprisingly ingenious pairing of Henry Melling and Alexander Skarsgard, who have terrific chemistry together and are both fully committed to everything asked of them. As the heart and soul of the film, Melling delivers the extreme level of devotion and vulnerability required of his character, nailing the inadvertent humor within the endearing awkwardness alongside palpable traits of desire, rage and jealousy, all the while bringing a natural tenderness to Colin that feels so grounded in relatable loneliness driving the painfully frustrating actions of his decision making. As for Skarsgard, it’s not surprising that he plays an overpoweringly handsome man of very few words, but that the lack of dialogue does seem to give us the evidential sense of Ray being a very guarded man of underlining soulfulness, in which he guards with an impenetrable wall of confidence and assertiveness, leaving this commanding presence to any room that he chooses to dominate, and while his performance comes with tons of confliction in the ways that the audience never quite sees him in the same light that Colin does, there’s a real nurturing guidance to the second half evolution of his character that requires Skarsgard to express so much internal confliction facially, cementing his most complex and demanding role to date, even with Melling enacting so much of the humility that drives their dynamic.

NEGATIVES

While there’s very little to creatively scoff at here, with regards to such an astonishingly deep and insightful feature length directorial debut for Harry Lighton, I did take legitimate displeasure with the movie’s ending, which requires a bit more interpretation out of the audience than I would’ve preferred within a conflict that rides the waves emotionally from one extreme to the next, as well as an elaborated character growth out of Colin, which doesn’t feel fully earned in the air of his actions. On the former, there’s definitely an abruptness to the conception of this conflict that feels sharply enacted in order to take a conventional route towards a third act distancing that deviates from the rest of the collective film surrounding it, almost feeling like Lighton’s realization that he must forcefully wrap this up before running out of time, but there’s just as much need for an unrealized confrontation that underscores the magnitude of what transpired between these characters in a climax, in ways that will inevitably leave some members of the audience feeling a bit unfulfilled in the dedication of their patience, and while I fully feel like I accurately interpreted what transpired between these characters, I don’t think the script takes the most compelling method towards maintaining the entertainment value of its execution, leading to an epilogue that hints at many changes in the life of Colin, but without the facts to back them up. In addition to the movie’s ending, some of the editing consistencies also leave slightly more to be desired in the correspondence of transpired time jumps that jolt forward, with only the overtime work of the dialogue to convey how much time has passed from one scene to the next. The biggest example of these definitely deals with the death of one very valued character, which not only happens invaluably off-screen, but also brings with it a transition that extinguished three months of development with it, and while I’m not prejudice against the abrupt passage of time in a movie, I will say that the multiple times utilized here does serve as more of a distraction to the placement of these characters than I would’ve preferred, and it makes me wish that this film that takes place roughly in a year of this relationship, was condensed within a matter of few months, especially considering so very little outside of the aforementioned death actually happens in the distance of its journey.

OVERALL
Pillion is a raw, kinky and quietly provocative character study about the introspective agency of relationships that endearingly substitutes shocking imagery for stirring sentiment, helping to craft an endearingly enlightening trail for curious audiences to embrace a wilder side of erotic discovery. Dominated by the quietly devastating performances of the year’s most unexpected pairing of Henry Melling and Alexander Skarsgard, as well as submissive to the fantasy filming of Nick Morris’ intimately glowing cinematography, the film serves as an audaciously fearless directorial debut for Harry Lighton, who bends, bites, and even grapples his way into the hearts of audiences within a queer love story that is refreshing and most importantly relatable.

My Grade: 8.5 or B+