I first watched this back in December as part of A24’s awards consideration package. While I did get a few screeners from A24 last year, Pillion sadly wasn’t one of them,and there was clearly a lot happening. I really wanted to wait to review it until I got the audio description, and now in time for Pride month, Pillion: Unrated is on HBO MAX with audio description! If any of this made it into the R rated cut, we’ve come a long way from This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Kirby Dick’s exploration of the MPAA and its bizarre ratings decisions, that often included deeper cuts for LGBTQ programming. Pillion is nothing if not audacious.

The film centers around Colin, played by Harry Melling, who I swear to God was Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films. Think about that while watching Pillion. Colin is a parking enforcement attendant, who has a mother (Leslie Sharp) who is losing a battle with cancer, and is in a barbershop quartet with his dad (Douglas Hodge). In his spare time, he rocks it in a barbershop quartet. And, this is a Christmas film. If Die Hard is a Christmas film for taking place at Christmas, welcome Pillion to the reason for the season.

After a failed date, Colin notices Ray (Alexander Skarsgard), a mysterious biker that comes in as part of a gay biker gang. Ray refuses a date request, but gives Colin a location with a date and time. They have an encounter, and although COlin finds Ray impossible to read, Ray keeps inviting him along, as the two push into a dom/sub relationship. The film finds conflict as Colin’s mom is worried about her boy finding the right man before she dies, and she firmly believes Ray isn’t it. It is edgy in terms of content, certainly in the unrated version, as the film needed to trim a lot to get an R rating. But, most of what was cut was just gratuitous extensions of what already exists. Less shots of Skarsgard’s penis (which isn’t his, by the way), as well as some edits to encounters the pair has, and toning down the semen. It’s predictable stuff, but it all comes roaring back in the unrated version that has audio description by Roy Samuelson and Deluxe.

I don’t get the people who see Pillion as a comedy. Writer/Director Harry Lighton, who is on his first feature, sneakily crafts something that resembles a kinky version of Heated Rivalry for bikers, and an exploration of a gay sub-culture. But when you get to the end, which is debatably satisfying, you realize what this really is. Ray is experienced enough to know what he wants and doesn’t want, and that makes him draw hard lines, forcing Colin to always submit. As the film goes forward, with everything that goes on in Colin’s life, he starts to realize that there are some non-negotiables for him, which puts his situationship with Ray into question. Colin realizes he has limits, he has wants and desires of his own, and while he’s perfectly fine submitting, bottoming, or being directed at what to do, there’s a part he still wants. He wants a day off. He wants normal conversations, to learn about the person he’s with, and for that person to be mildly interested in him. Pillion is like trying to get your kids to eat brussel sprouts, so you wrap it in bacon. Some people think they only just had bacon, but Lighton (whose screenplay won at Cannes in 2025), actually has written something far more complex.

For anyone in the queer community who has started out inexperienced, and started dating someone who clearly has more, even that dynamic will hit you, because if you strip away a lot of the flair in the film, Pillion is as much about self discovery as it is anything else. It is about learning what your limits are, what you will and won’t do, and how to assert yourself to your partner. Colin is a doormat at the beginning, so accepting and willing of all the undiscussed eccentric choices being made, he just does them without question. Sleep on the floor? Sure. That’s weird, but Colin doesn’t have the courage to know he should ask. It’s actually somewhat troubling how Colin gets pulled into this world with no objections, and also no real conversation from Ray. There’s never any kind of verbal contract, or understanding of what Colin is getting into, he just has no idea if or how to assert his own needs. By the end of the film, however, we see that he does have the agency, and as he’s working on a fresh profile for himself, suddenly he does know what he can do, and what he won’t do. A character that would never have known to ask for or use a safe word earlier, feels far more astute at the end, because of the range of experiences he has with Ray.

It’s also a wonderfully endearing representation of family, as Colin’s family, not once, slips on some reference or sly comment about wishing they had a straight son, nor do they get oversold as the PFLAG type that run around and compensate with advocacy. there’s nothing wrong with that, but ultimately we lack the kind of basic representation that Colin gets, with a traditional family setting that treats his dating men as naturally as if he were dating a woman. Dad isn’t ashamed of not having a masculine son, or going through some conflict about not being able to talk to or relate to Colin. They seem fine. Even his Mom, when she finally does take a stand, it is limited to specifically how she reads Ray’s personality, and doesn’t want to die and leave Colin in Ray’s care. To her, she sees him long before anyone else, which is something Ray is afraid of, and why he spends so much time avoiding.

I’ll admit, the second viewing here is key to if you’ll enjoy this long term or not. The content can be quite jarring and unexpected, and I respect the hell out of it for including what it does, and refusing to color inside the lines. It never plays it safe, unless you expected it to just turn into a straight porn film. As an artistic device, it needles the conventions set forth by the comfort levels of previous generations, and truly asks its audience to take the road less traveled.

The addition of Alexander Skarsgard here gives it the kind of level and permission for wider audiences to address this movie, as opposed to an indie with lesser known actors, that struggles to get noticed. I’ve seen quite a few gay romances in the last few years, and so many of them feel like they are specifically, and only targeting, the choir being preached to. Last year, Unicorns had a lot of surprising emotional weight to it, but it had very little discussion surrounding it as Ben Hardy was the biggest name. Mubi should have been able to get more out of The History Of Sound with that cast, but they still took that film further than Griffin In Summer.

The A24 label, the awards season clout, and Skarsgard likely got Pillion a few more butts in seats, and also a wider release. That’s great, because we’re past the casual gay cowboys now, and LGBTQ cinema continues to expand as it permeates into pop culture and finds a new level of success. Pillion may be walking, so something else can run in five years. It feels like, in Pride month, the reality of explicitly queer cinema (not camp classics) is that they benefit from the boundaries pushed by films that came before them.

I think Pillion is great. The audio description here is fantastic, and in terms of the Unrated Cut, it really never felt like it was trying to doge the more sexual references. The film is frank, so the audio description is as well. It also doesn’t break protocol either and start functioning like it is narrating erotica either.

There’s a lot to like in Pillion, and kudos to A24 for picking up the film. I think their awards push for it was stunted, based on the all in for Marty Supreme, and the niche audience for pillion. This film isn’t for everyone. There are so many more things I’d rather do than watch this with my Mom. What an odd first date film this would be. I think Pillion has found its audience, and that audience will recommend it to people they know who are interested, but pay less attention to film, and it will continue to find an audience.

I submit to the boldness of Pillion, a story of self discovery disguised as 50 Shades of Ray. Lighton makes an auspicious debut, setting himself up as a director that refuses to back down.

Fresh: 8.4/10