In Harry Lighton’s debut feature based on Adam Mars-Jones' 2020 novel Box Hill, the life of a sheltered twenty something named Colin (Harry Melling, Harry Potter) is forever changed the moment biker Ray (Alexander SkarsgĂ„rd, The Northman, Infinity Pool) unzips his leather pants in a dark alley on Christmas Day, freeing a massive, pierced, dangling cock.

The two quickly enter into an all-consuming, 24/7 dominant/submissive relationship. Colin follows Ray’s rules, becomes his devoted pet. But when the relationship begins to unravel, the power dynamics are not to blame. Like any other relationship, it’s bad communication. Apart from all the kinky sex, Pillion is almost family friendly and it is easily one of my favorite queer films of the last several years.

Defying popular, negative perceptions of BDSM—especially gay BDSM—Colin’s submissive role transforms him into a more assertive person, free to pursue his desires on his own non-negotiable terms and proudly advertise his “aptitude for devotion.”

It’s interesting to see Melling, best-known for playing Harry Potter’s greedy, idiotic cousin Dudley Dursley, as the sensitive object of SkarsgĂ„rd’s cold affection. Though the characters share a similar background (doting parents, an upbringing in the southeast London suburbs), Melling is no longer the butt of an eight-movie-long fat joke but a character with agency, allowed to explore his sexuality and to be considered desirable. Unlike Dudley, Melling tugs heartstrings as the naĂŻve Colin, who you can’t help but want to hug. His face is an open book; his puppy eyes widen in simultaneous fear and delight. 

With Melling’s Colin as a guileless vehicle, BDSM is shown as sweet rather than debased. The sex scenes aren’t soft-focused, porny fantasies, but genuine and even endearingly awkward, like when Colin and Ray grapple in spandex to Tiffany’s version of “I Think We’re Alone Now.” (The scene was the first that Melling and SkarsgĂ„rd shot together, so the awkwardness might be authentic.) In Pillion, tenderness is found in birthday orgies and beautifully shot late-night, windblown motorcycle rides showing freedom can be found in submission. 

BDSM in Hollywood is often played for laughs and scares, or portrayed as exotic and perverse, as in the case of Fifty Shades of Grey. Lighton cited Secretary and The Duke of Burgundy as films he had in mind while making Pillion, but went for a more relatable route. “I always wanted Pillion to have enough of a foot in realism, that you weren’t, as a viewer, able to distance yourself from the character in the way I think that I personally do in those films, by dint of the tone,” he told Letterboxd. 

Pillion doesn’t exploit gayness either, or make sexuality the friction in these men’s lives. Colin’s parents are enthusiastically supportive of his queerness, but just want to see their son treated right outside the bedroom. In that way, they’re a stand-in for viewers who might not know boot-blacking from anal beads, but can read the conventional love story between the lines of this unconventional relationship.

I’d bet a reasonably open-minded family could watch it together. Alexander SkarsgĂ„rd could do it: He watched it with his dad Stellan SkarsgĂ„rd (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Dune) at Telluride Film Festival. As Stellan succinctly put it, “I have no problem seeing him do BDSM, that’s not a problem. If he acts badly, I have big problems.”

See Pillion at NWFF March 20–April 1