Movie Review: PILLION

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: February 8th, 2026 / 09:05 PM

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Harry Melling, Alexander Skarsgård, Lesley Sharp, Douglas Hodge, Jake Shears
Writer: Harry Lighton, based on the novel BOX HILL by Adam Mars-Jones
Director: Harry Lighton
Distributor: A24
Release Date: February 6, 2026

The word “pillion” is defined as “a seat for a passenger behind a motorcyclist.” PILLION’s protagonist Colin (Harry Melling) spends a fair amount of time riding pillion behind motorcyclist Ray (Alexander Skarsgård). There are a lot of things Colin and Ray do together frequently, but “pillion” is probably one of the marquee-friendlier ones.

Director/screenwriter Harry Lighton has adapted and updated Adam Mars-Jones’s 2020 novel BOX HILL. The book is set in the ‘70s, but the film is in the era of cell phones and greater openness.

When we meet Colin, he’s a nerdy young man living with his parents, Peggy (Lesley Sharp) and Pete (Douglas Hodge), in suburban England. Colin has a job as a parking attendant and is part of a barbershop quartet with his dad and brother.

Peggy and Pete are wholly supportive of Colin’s gayness, but the date Peggy sets up for her son is a dud.

Then, very handsome and fit biker Ray – this is Skarsgård at his most handsome and fit – makes sustained eye contact with Colin. Ray even leaves his phone number with a meeting time and place for the next day, which happens to be Christmas.

Dazzled, smitten and thrilled, Colin is happy to do anything Ray desires. For starters, there’s a hookup in an alley. It doesn’t go perfectly, but Ray invites Colin over to his place the next day – and wants Colin to cook and clean for him.

Indeed, some of Ray’s demands are for domestic services: preparing meals, washing dishes, vacuuming and so on. His physical actions are always consensual. Ray’s psychological games are tests of what Colin will tolerate, but they seem less about deliberately demoralizing Colin than Ray’s need to have things exactly the way he wants.

In the course of his relationship with Ray, Colin is delighted to find community with Ray’s BDSM biker pals. The sense of belonging and having a sexy shared secret is exhilarating, even as Colin starts to acknowledge a gap between what he’s getting and what he actually wants.

While PILLION isn’t as graphic as it might be, it could be called middle-core (as opposed to soft or hard). We’re seeing more simulations of certain activities than are customary in most character studies. Here, these don’t seem gratuitous, because Colin’s reactions are important to who he is becoming.

On the other hand, we’re a little baffled, because we don’t know what sort of revelations and/or evolutions PILLION will ultimately showcase. Are we meant to be rooting for Colin to get to a place where he can require more from Ray? Are we meant to want Ray to start acting more like a human being involved with another human being? Are we meant to hope to find out more about Ray’s background? What are we looking for here?

PILLION ultimately provides an answer to this that is reasonable within its framework. Lighton has a wonderfully natural style that makes everything from sex acts to conversation to silence feel like part of normal life. In a scene at a growingly awkward sit-down meal with Ray, Colin and Colin’s parents, Colin may take sides, but the movie doesn’t.

Melling is wholly sympathetic and endearing as the innocent and eager Colin, and Skarsgård is smooth confidence incarnate as Ray. Sharp is excellent as Colin’s concerned mum.

PILLION is something of a slow burn, but Melling’s Colin is a compelling companion in a relaxed, warm look at both a one-on-one situation and a larger world we don’t often see.

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A gay coming-of-age character study, with lots of sex

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Article: Movie Review: PILLION

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