Director: Harry Lighton
Cast: Harry Melling, Alexander Skarsgård
Screenplay: Harry Lighton
107 mins. Unrated.

From the opening few scenes of Pillion, one thing becomes clear in the mind of its main character: the world is so very lonely right now. It’s sometimes hard to break away from the familiar to experience something new because the thought of failure can be overpowering, but in Writer/Director Harry Lighton’s new film, finding something new and scary can have its strengths, depending on how much you want to give in to it.

Colin (Harry Melling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) is a lonely gay man living with his two loving but overprotective parents. His mother sets him up on dates, but nothing really comes of them. When a chance encounter puts him in the sights of the hunky biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård, The Northman), Colin thinks he might have the chance at romance, but Ray isn’t interested in that so much. Ray wants Colin to be his submissive, wearing a chain around his neck and answering to Ray’s dominating presence. This is a new, exciting, and uncertain world for Colin, but he seems to have a knack for it.

Pillion is a view into the world of Dominance and Submission, a BDSM subculture, and it’s a fascinating view at that. Lighton (Wren Boys) offers a glimpse of the culture but never offers a definitive stance or statement on it, allowing his audience to decide for themselves. He presents the inherent risks of the lifestyle, but his is a welcoming look through the eyes of Colin as he experiences it for the first time. Lighton’s narrative storytelling is at its best through the collision of Colin’s two worlds: the submissive relationship with the mysterious Ray, and his home life with the overbearing but well-meaning parents, particularly his mother. The sequences in which these two worlds collide and intermingle are when Pillion is at its most powerful, most notably a scene in which Colin invites Ray to dinner with his parents, and his mother begins to see behind the curtain of the relationship, one she doesn’t approve of.

Lighton contrasts the more-outwardly dom/sub relationship between Colin and Ray with the inward power-play between Colin’s parents: Peggy and Pete. Peggy is always the one with the power in the relationship, while Pete is the lovingly submissive and emotionally giving husband. Her conflict with Ray comes from deciding that what makes her uncomfortable is downright bad for her son, a bit of backwards thinking, but Pete’s always just trying to understand the situation better for himself. They both come from a good place, but they are different tactics.

The acting, particularly from the two leads, is exceptional. I was worried that I would have trouble getting over the “Harry Melling as Dudley Dursley” of it all, but he disappears into the role, as does Skarsgård as Ray, which may be a bit more in line with his role in True Blood. The sex is fully on display without ever feeling gratuitous or disrespectful. There’s a realism in the sex and the sexuality, and the comedy of the film is never mined from a place of mocking, which I appreciated.

People looking specifically for shock value may be underwhelmed by Pillion, but that was never the purpose of the film. Harry Lighton has written and directed a strong lens with which to frame this unique-to-film central relationship. It isn’t easy and the narrative is at times purposely frustrating, but the two central performances are committed and the characters and world are respected. I still would’ve like to have seen more of Ray’s background as well as more of their friends in the Dom/Sub and how their relationships compared and contrasted with the narrowed in view of our two main characters, but what we do have makes for a compelling and sometimes funny view at the unique relationships and the power of community and loneliness in currect society. Pillion is well worth searching out for those looking to experience a world unlike their own (presumably).

4/5
-Kyle A. Goethe