Pillion: First reactions as Alexander Skarsgård’s ‘filthy’ film about gay biker and ‘submissive’ lover hits Cannes
The film won an eight-minute ovation from an audience including Pedro Pascal at last night's premiere
Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Melling’s new film Pillion, about a biker and his ‘submissive’ gay lover, has been met with a glowing reception at Cannes.
The movie, produced by Element Pictures and described by sources close to the project as a “fun and filthy romance with heart,” debuted at the French film festival yesterday (Sunday 18 May 2025).
In it, former Harry Potter star Melling plays the unassuming Colin, who enters into a power imbalanced dynamic with Skarsgård’s brooding Ray.
The film won an eight-minute ovation from an audience including Pedro Pascal at last night’s premiere
Pillion currently has a 100% ‘Fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 12 reviews. Here’s a breakdown of the reception, looking at reviews from five key outlets…
RogerEbert.com
“An examination of dom/sub culture through the lens of a sexually explicit relationship between two very different men. … The dynamic between them becomes defined when he allows Colin back to his flat. What Colin first thinks might be a date is more of a very specific set of rules. Colin will do the cooking. Colin will sleep on the floor. Colin will not sit on the couch. They will wrestle and have sex on Ray’s terms. He orders Colin to get a butt plug because he’s too tight, and Colin happily obliges. Before you know it, he’s got a shaved head and a chain with a lock around his neck” – Brian Tallerico
Vanity Fair
“Pillion is a graphic film. It’s far from hardcore, but no doubt some viewers will still be titillated or put-off by the film’s depiction of gay sex and male anatomy, by the rough foreplay enjoyed between two consenting—if, perhaps, not equally matched—adults. That frankness is crucial to Lighton’s project; mere coy hinting at the central matter would do disservice to the sentiment of the film. Pillion is ultimately ambivalent about what this all means. Or, at least, it lets a potent question hang in the air: when does a willingly agreed-upon abnegation of autonomy become something less than consensual?” – Richard Lawson
The Guardian
“Here to prove there’s nothing gentle about true love is an intensely English story of romance, devotion and loss from first-time feature director Harry Lighton, who has created something funny and touching and alarming – like a cross between Alan Bennett and Tom of Finland with perhaps a tiny smidgen of what could be called a BDSM Wallace and Gromit. It’s basically what Fifty Shades of Grey should have been” – Peter Bradshaw
Hollywood Reporter
“Submitting to Alexander Skarsgard might sound enticing to many, but would you come back willingly if he sent you off the morning after your first night together with the terse command: “Buy yourself a butt plug. You’re too tight.”? That’s after allowing you to sleep on a rug at the foot of his bed, like a dog. Abuse, low-key cringe humor and unexpectedly sweet romance somehow co-exist in Brit writer-director Harry Lighton’s audacious first feature. Pillion is less about the shock factor of some very graphic gay kink than the nuances of love, desire and mutual needs within a sub/dom relationship” – David Rooney
Little White Lies
“Pillion understands the excruciating vulnerability of vocalising desire both sexual and emotional, realised on-screen with some of the most erotic and uninhibited sex scenes in recent memory (with special credit to intimacy coordinator Robbie Taylor-Hunt). The boldness, nuance and humour with which Lighton navigates BDSM dynamics as well as Colin and Ray’s personal and joint complexities results in a film that’s frequently touching and surprising, less of an adaptation and more of a reimagining that compliments the source material rather than replicates it” – Hannah Strong