Film Review: PILLION (2025): Alexander Skarsgård is Brilliant in a Layered Tale of Passionate Desires
Pillion Review
Pillion (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Harry Lighton, written by Adam Mars-Jones and Harry Lighton and starring Alexander Skarsgård, Harry Melling, Douglas Hodge, Lesley Sharp, Jake Shears, Jake Sharp, Jacob Carter, Miranda Bell, Anthony Welsh and Michael “Mike” Jones.
Filmmaker Harry Lighton’s intense drama, Pillion, showcases the great Alexander Skarsgård as a mysterious man named Ray who has a sexual relationship with an everyday guy named Colin (Harry Melling). Colin gives tickets to cars who are illegally parked for a living. Colin lives a mundane life before meeting Ray. When a woman tries to fight Colin on a ticket he gives her, he ignores her and moves forward without any emotion.
Colin’s parents try to set him up with a down-to-earth, ordinary guy, but all bets are off when the handsome and muscular Ray appears in Colin’s life. Skarsgård’s turn feels like an iconic role for the actor who embodies the most admirable qualities of characters like Fight Club‘s Tyler Durden (who was played by Brad Pitt). One major difference, though: Ray engages in steamy sexual encounters with Colin that make him a bit different in scope than any other character we’ve ever encountered on-screen.
Colin’s mom, Peggy (the great Lesley Sharp), thinks that Colin’s new “boyfriend,” Ray, is a creep because he doesn’t share much about his life with Colin or his parents. Ray is an enigma and that’s part of the reason that Colin becomes obsessed with him from their first steamy encounter where they chain their dogs up and go engage in sexual activity in a nearby alley. Colin has a full head of wavy hair at the start of the movie, but soon, he cuts it off to fit into a relationship with Ray that has Colin as the submissive one while Ray dominates. Ray doesn’t let Colin come into the bed with him at one point and the two lovers only meet halfway every now and then. Colin wears a chain around his neck that makes him seem like Ray’s property more than anything else in an inspired story line choice within the picture.
Pillion doesn’t spare the audience moments of some of the steamiest sex you’ll see on-screen nowadays (it’s actually unrated). Lighton’s film focuses on how Colin falls in love with Ray and how the pair form one of the most unusual relationships ever seen in the movies. Ray’s biker character is that “Mr. Cool” type that Brad Pitt played so well in Fight Club, but he’s not imaginary in Pillion. He’s a real character who is full of mystery but needs passion in his life even though he’s not willing to submit to his inner-most desire to love and be loved in return. Colin bares his soul while Ray bares his body and holds in what he feels as he gives into his wishes to be pleased sexually, above all else.
Alexander Skarsgård is the very essence of Pillion although Melling is also quite good in his less showy role. Colin is like the Edward Norton to Skarsgård’s Brad Pitt-like character. Of course, Pitt and Norton weren’t gay in Fight Club, but they had the sort of “give and take” that the two leads take into consideration when playing their complex roles in Lighton’s movie. Pillion goes all the way in the themes it explores, much like the successful handling of the topics Fincher tackled in Fight Club and the new picture is all the better a film for that fact.
Pillion is excellent in the way it portrays Colin’s mother’s protective nature over him. Lesley Sharp is wonderful in the role as she tries to shelter Colin from the pain that she knows Ray will ultimately burden him with. Sharp chews scenery and comes up aces in the way she brings strength and determination to the mom she plays. Melling is smart as Colin as the character knows he probably won’t get the “Ray” he wants but tries so desperately to get. The way Ray almost comes around at the end is the most intriguing part of Pillion.
Harry Melling owns his role as Colin in the movie and the scenes between him and Alexander Skarsgård are so strong that their romance leaps off the screen even if one can’t always determine whether it is, indeed, a “real” romance or a bout of steamy sexual encounters dressed up as a relationship. Lighton does give the movie a conclusive ending and that may be the most difficult decision that was made with Pillion because after watching the film, it’s hard to believe that Colin would ever get over Ray no matter how hard he tries. Ray is quite memorable and believably portrayed in Pillion.
Pillion is a deep and fascinating character study. Alexander Skarsgård brings so much depth to his performance that he creates subtext that develops him intensely even when the story line wants to keep much of his character’s personal life a secret. Watching two pros like Melling and Skarsgård is great entertainment even if Pillion takes a few unnecessary shortcuts at the end to arrive at an ending with some sort of closure. Still, Pillion is an amazing achievement for its portrayal of relentless sex and desire in a world that doesn’t always like to talk about such delicate topics.
Rating: 8.5/10
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