If Richard Curtis were to adapt Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher” into a cozy and very gay Christmas movie, it might look something like Harry Lighton’s kinky, fetishes-on-its-sleeve BDSM romance “Pillion.” Alexander Skarsgård stars as an enigmatic gay leather dom opposite Harry Melling as the timid traffic warden he takes under his wing — and under his domination, but not quite into his bed as Ray (Skarsgård) gets off on withholding in the emotion department. Meanwhile, Colin (Melling), is hoping for something more, and optimistic he can get Ray to crack.
A24 releases the film early next year after raved-about appearances at Cannes, Telluride, and, next, the New York Film Festival. Watch below.
Writer/director Lighton’s remarkably mature first feature lightly adapts Adam Mars-Jones’ novel “Box Hill” for a subversive, wildly graphic treat — cheeky in all senses of the term. When not working in a parking garage as a traffic attendant, Colin also sings in a barbershop quartet, and it’s in a dive bar, circa the holidays, when Ray approaches and entreats him for a date of sorts.
A sub-dom push-pull begins, as Ray starts to take over Colin’s life and vice versa. Meanwhile, at home, Colin is helping his dad (Douglas Hodge) take care of his sick mom (played by the great English actress Lesley Sharp). Eventually, Ray pulls Colin into a gay motorcycle community where he meets others in similar arrangements — until Colin is finally able to pierce through Ray emotionally, and possibly more so than Ray’s prior pillions. (Scissor Sisters lead Jake Shears makes his acting entrance as one of the submissives orbiting Ray.)
That term, by the way, refers to the passenger seat on a motorcycle, but here becomes slang for the passive partner in a relationship. But Colin doesn’t stay passive for long.
IndieWire critic Ryan Lattanzio (that’s me) adored this movie out of Cannes, calling the film “a deeply moving love story, one where we become the submissives to Lighton’s strange, beautiful, and sexy vision.”
“Pillion” screens at the New York Film Festival on Saturday, October 4. A24 will release the film theatrically early in 2026. It won the Best Screenplay award out of Un Certain Regard at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.