Described bafflingly as arthouse in some quarters, Pillion is much more your seaside-postcard Full Monty-style Britcom of yore sexed up with Alexander Skarsgård in his scanties, in a story about a timid boy-man (Harry Melling) willingly entering into a BDSM relationship with a biker.
If you approach it as arthouse, you’ll leave disappointed. But come at it from the cosy comedy direction and it’s quite rewarding, and if you’ve ever wanted to see Skarsgård more or less in the buff – no spoilers – you’ll be doubly happy.
Colin is a shy man who sings in a barbershop with his dad, Pete (Douglas Hodge), and has dates with other diffident nerds arranged by his mum, Peggy (Lesley Sharp). Then one Christmas Eve he meets leather-clad gay motorbiker Ray at a pub in an encounter that sets the tone for what’s to follow. After Christmas dinner the next day, instead of falling asleep on the sofa with the rest of the family, Colin heads out to meet Ray as arranged. And, down the side of a McDonalds, he sucks Ray off, before being forced to lick his boots.
The sex Colin had obviously hoped for and at least half expected, but the tongue-on-leather action is something else. But, possibly surprising himself, he likes it. And that’s the beginning of a wonkily beautiful friendship – silent, moody blond god Ray demanding stuff from puzzled but compliant Colin which no ordinary person would agree to. Colin cooks Ray dinner at his place but isn’t allowed to sit on the sofa with him, for instance. At bedtime, while Ray sprawls across the big bed, Colin is relegated to the floor.
Skivvy-cum-sex slave is the idea, Colin’s abject submission to Ray’s whim a reflection of the rest of his life – he works as a traffic warden and is regularly roundly abused by members of the public.
Is the worm going to turn? Is the hard man going to soften? A bit of both? Harry Lighton, working from Adam Mars-Jones’s novel Box Hill, keeps us guessing, chucking chum into the water with beautifully written and crafted “scenes from a relationship” to keep us on tenterhooks. The one where Ray and Colin meet with their dogs (Ray’s is a Rottweiler, Colin’s is a toy dachshund cross). The outings that Ray takes Colin on with the rest of the gay motorcycle club of which he’s a member. The angular meal with Colin’s parents, which Ray attends with great reluctance – and which goes all sorts of wrong.
The sex is funny rather than seedy or erotic, which is why the film is so very British. The comedy is poignant rather than laugh out loud. There is a question in the weeds about whether a relationship this asymmetrical can really be considered consensual, since it’s so exploitative. Colin’s submission is not a positive choice: discuss with reference to Ray’s clearly damaged psyche.
But mostly it’s amusing scenes of Ray demanding and Colin submitting.
The dynamic is entirely plausible and the casting is on the nose. Skarsgård as a sex god of any persuasion is easy to buy, but it’s Melling who does all the hard work in terms of acting. The fact that he’s still most often remembered as Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films adds a dash of something very wrong (and so very right) to the whole thing. Hodge and Sharp as the loving, concerned parents are excellent, and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters makes his acting debut as a fellow submissive who has also found a home with Ray’s biker gang.
Hairy, beefy, tattooed members of the Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club are in the film as extras and consultants, and make it even more plausible, though who know what they’re acting as advisors on – the four-stroke engine’s “suck, squeeze, bang, blow” cycle would be appropriate. File under “cheeky”.
Pillion – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
