This year’s NYFF offers a plethora of queer stories plunging into areas of LGBTQ life that aren’t often explored, certainly not with the frankness and daring that first-time feature director Harry Lighton exhibits in the best gay-themed film of the Fest, Pillion.
This startling and unpredictable delight begins with sweet, mild-mannered Colin (Harry Melling) singing in a Barbershop quartet on Christmas Eve, along with his father (Douglas Hodge). His ailing but cheery mother (an excellent Lesley Sharp) is joined by another man as they enjoy the performance. We soon learn her escort is someone Colin’s super accepting mother is setting her son up with. Alas, sparks don’t fly, but while on his “date” he spots Ray (Alexander Skarsgård) a stunning, leather-clad biker, and is instantly smitten.
“What am I gonna do with you?” asks the sexy, brusque Ray.
“Anything you want,” replies Colin, in an excited if, slightly nervous manner.
So begins this wild cinematic odyssey into the world of the fetishy, BDSM, gay subculture where extreme dom-sub behavior is not only practiced, but also a way of life.
Based on the 2020 Adam Mars-Jones novel, Box Hill, Pillion explores the initially satisfying but tremendously complicated relationship between two vastly different men who not only delight in this type of role play but take the master/slave scenario to an extreme.
The film’s title is Brit gay slang for ‘bottom,’ but literally means the seat behind the driver of a motorcycle.
Colin is a rather green sub who may have never bottomed before since the first time with Ray is rather painful, which annoys Ray who insists the dude get himself a butt plug.
But Colin is super eager to be indoctrinated and soon finds himself wearing a choke collar that only Ray has the key to, sleeping in his undies on the rug next to Ray’s bed, and cooking for his dom Daddy.
Colin attends BDSM biker parties where he, and other subs, lie in wait, ass exposed while their tops, eat, drink and joke around—until it’s time to have their way with the subs. Colin also coaxes Ray into meeting his parents, which does not go well at all and when mom judges the way Ray treats Colin, Ray responds by insisting, “People have different ways of expressing themselves.”
The Brit-born filmmaker never shies away from boldly exploring this particular and peculiar (to most of us) way of life and how it affects Colin. Lighton also, very smartly, gives us just enough backstory about Ray so he remains a mystery. When Colin begins to rebel against his master, desiring some deviation from the passive norm, things get really tricky. And surprising.
Melling, best known for the Harry Potter movies, is incredibly good here, showing us Colin’s multitude of emotions from confusion and upset to delight and ecstasy. This is his breakout performance.
Skarsgård continues to astound and in a perfect world would be competing with his father, Stellan (for Sentimental Value), this year in the Best Supporting Actor Oscar category. It’s not going to happen because Pillion is not the type of film that would ever get recognized by AMPAS (even with the fresh blood members), but he’s certainly more than deserving. His Ray is steely cool but lets out flickers of vulnerability and humanity. Ray is obviously afraid of intimacy, but he also craves it. It’s an enigmatic, provocative turn, often super funny, sometimes frightening, always mesmerizing.
Pillion is exactly the kind of queer story that might have appeared unnecessary but, in this fearless and authentic rendering, proves essential to the canon. It’s also a damn fine film.
An A24 Release.
Pillion is part of the Spotlight section at the New York Film Festival.
