PILLION 🤩

The romance film you didn’t realize you needed.

PILLION will stay with you after you see it, perhaps for days like it has me. It’s an honest portrayal of an intimate relationship we don’t often see depicted on film. It’s both tender and rough, comforting and heartbreaking, simple and complex. PILLION is a microcosm of love and lust as told through the eyes of a gay British man in a relationship with his partner. 

PILLION premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 and opened in the UK later that year. We American moviegoers are finally getting to see it as it’s slowly rolling out to cinemas this month. If it feels like the press tour for this has been going on for almost a year, it has been! Star Alexander Skarsgård has been all over the world promoting PILLION, then pivoted to promote the recent release of THE MOMENT, before going back to promote this movie again! I’ve been a fan of Skarsgård since he played Eric in TRUE BLOOD and Iceman in GENERATION KILL, both of which premiered on HBO in 2008. I have a great photo with him from a TRUE BLOOD event back in 2009/2010 that I love to pull out every time he has a new project in cinemas or on TV. He’s easy on the eyes, there’s no doubt about that, but he’s also cemented himself as a deeply talented actor with a range that goes far beyond just being a pretty face. In PILLION, Skarsgård stars as Ray, a mysterious but charismatic biker, and dom (dominant) opposite Harry Melling’s Colin, his sub (submissive). 

Melling first came into our lives during the Harry Potter franchise, as Harry’s spoiled-rotten, mean cousin Dudley Dursley. While his roles in those films were small, they were quite memorable. Since leaving the Potterverse behind, he’s had an incredibly interesting career – from Netflix’s THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT to the Coen Brothers’ THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS. While Skarsgård may be getting most of the press for PILLION, Melling’s Colin is the true protagonist of the film. Both Melling and Skarsgård’s performances here elevate an already wonderful film. There’s so much nuance in the way their bodies move around one another, and apart, that truly tells us, the audience, who these characters are.

Colin still lives with his supportive parents, works for parking enforcement, and sings in a barbershop quartet with his dad and twin brother. Through a chance encounter at a local pub, he meets Ray, a handsome, confident member of a queer motorcycle group. Their relationship starts awkwardly; Colin is inexperienced, and Ray isn’t sure if Colin is really cut out for the type of partnership he wants. As seen through Colin’s eyes, what happens over the next several months is quite familiar to many people experiencing their first love. PILLION’s creators, director and co-writer Harry Lighton and co-writer Adam Mars-Jones must have known that most of the film’s viewers wouldn’t have much knowledge about the queer dom/sub lifestyle. And it doesn’t matter. All healthy relationships have more in common with each other than not: Mutual love and respect. 

The ending of PILLION is what has left me deep in thought these last few days. Relationships, especially the first serious ones, can be messy. As a film lover, I don’t need a neat conclusion from PILLION to enjoy the rest of the story. We can interpret things one way or another, but Lighton knows his characters better than any of us. It’s what one can control that’s most important: their actions, desires, boundaries, etc. And with that in mind, PILLON says goodbye with a perfect ending. 

PILLION from A24 is currently in cinemas and should be experienced now.