Pillion review - I experienced one of the filthiest films I've seen at Cannes

Metro

6 days ago

One of the best films I saw at Cannes Film Festival this year was also one of the most shocking – just as I hoped it would be.
Pillion, the feature debut from British filmmaker Harry Lighton, is one of the filthiest movies I've experienced, while also demonstrating a real aptitude for emotional tenderness.
Starring former Harry Potter actor Harry Melling – who made his name playing Dudley Dursley in the franchise – the film follows wallflower Colin, a meek parking enforcement officer who still lives at home in his 30s, as he embarks on his first proper adult relationship.
Only it's a romance more unconventional than most after he meets imposing biker gang leader Ray (Alexander Skarsgård) at the pub.
Colin is immediately in thrall to this handsome man, who shares a note with him with instructions for a rendezvous the next day, where they consummate their relationship by the bins behind Primark in Bromley – gloriously mundane – with Colin on his knees to receive Ray and his Prince Albert piercing. And this is all before actually formally introducing themselves.
After proving what Colin later proudly describes as his 'aptitude for devotion', the two embark on a BDSM relationship, with Colin transforming into the shaven-headed, collar-wearing sub to Ray's experienced and stern dom.
There's lots of unzipping of tight black leather, a bout of wrestling to Tiffany's I Think We're Alone Now, and, added to the end of the first shopping list Ray gives Colin, the immortal line: 'Buy yourself a butt plug, you're too tight'.
Colin's incredibly British response, 'Lovely, that sounds like a plan', is an exchange which perfectly demonstrates Pillion's deft balancing of humour, heart and hedonism.
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In exploring the subculture of leather and biker BDSM, the film – based on Adam Mars-Jones's 2020 novel Box Hill – Pillion is anything but shy. It's also not interested in judging.
Pillion is often graphic and explicit – and while you might not see that many penises, you know exactly what is going where and how by the camerawork and facial gymnastics – with glimpses of bodily fluids and anatomy sprinkled throughout. And it all adds up to something which feels delightfully smutty and obscene.
In one scene, Colin takes part in what I can most accurately describe as a buffet of bums, laid out across picnic tables for Ray and others to choose from during a biker gang camping trip.
But it's not just about the sex: Pillion delves into the emotional load of such a courtship, where Colin sleeps on a rug and not in Ray's bed, and is expected to cook all of his meals.
Colin's parents, played beautifully by Lesley Sharp and Douglas Hodge, are initially thrilled at the prospect of their son's new romance and exotic man – with the Swedish Skarsgård, deadpan, claiming that Ray is from Chislehurst when they first meet – only to start to worry as they struggle with Ray's closed-off attitude and treatment of their son. ('What does 'discreet' mean? Two wives and kids?')
Melling, continuing to pursue the most interesting of post-Potter portfolios after playing a young Edgar Allan Poe in Netflix's The Pale Blue Eye and collaborations with the Coen brothers like The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, is Pillion's true heart and soul.
He's like a raw nerve, with every emotion playing across Colin's face, who is so desperate for love and acceptance from Ray, and extremely vulnerable. When he starts to chafe at the strict rules in their relationship, Pillion really catches fire thanks to the unpredictable nature swirling around Ray and what might happen next.
It truly feels like Pillion will be Melling's second mainstream breakthrough (rather deliciously ironically), re-introducing himself to audiences as an adult performer capable of taking great risks and of giving outstanding performances.
Skarsgård has a tougher character to sell as the somewhat impenetrable Ray, but he manages to walk the line between mystery and man well – even hinting at the emotional damage hidden underneath layers and layers of self-control.
He and Melling also share an intense chemistry that really makes their intimate scenes spark as sexy as well as realistic and emotionally layered at the same time.
Pillion is a film more touching than I expected, especially in its final act (which I won't spoil). More Trending
It has a zingy script – also by Lighton, and awarded the best screenplay prize in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section – and personality that go far beyond what might initially be expected of a gay BDSM biker drama.
The movie is able to let audiences encounter every shade of explicit without veering into hardcore territory or breaking the spell of Ray's enchantment over Colin. Solely shocking viewers is not the point.
Instead we're immersed in a vivid relationship and world that leaves its mark on us after the credits roll, just as it does on Colin.
Pillion premiered at Cannes Film Festival. It is yet to receive a UK release date.
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