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With: Harry Melling, Alexander Skarsgård, Douglas Hodge, Lesley Sharp, Jake Shears, Mat Hill, Nick Figgis, Zoe Engenrer, Jake Sharp, Jacob Carter
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Written by: Harry Lighton, based on a novel by Adam Mars-Jones
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Directed by: Harry Lighton
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MPAA Rating: NR
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Running Time: 106
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Date: 02/13/2026
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Sub Culture
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter movies) gives a surprisingly memorable performance as Colin, an unassuming London man who lives with his parents and sings in a barbershop quartet. One night, after a performance (and an unsatisfying blind date), he spots Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), an astonishingly handsome leather-bound motorcycle man, and becomes thunderstruck. To his great surprise, Ray approaches him and slips him a piece of paper with a time and place. Even though it's Christmas night, Colin complies. They share a BDSM encounter in an alleyway, in which Colin completely submits, and finds he loves it.
Their relationship grows more intimate and more complex, with Colin acting as a domestic servant for Ray, and Ray remaining mysterious and emotionally unavailable. Eventually Colin works up the courage to ask for something incredible: a normal day together. Adapted from a novel by Adam Mars-Jones and directed by Harry Lighton — it's probably the best feature directorial debut since Past Lives — Pillion is set in the BDSM community, and it's not shy. It's sexy, but it's not interested in shocking anyone. It's inviting, funny, lovely, and filled with brilliant moments of joy and anguish. Even the title is perfect (the book title was Box Hill); a "pillion" is the back seat on a motorcycle, an image that suggests many possibilities and scenarios.
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