GLR March-April 2026

FILM

Don’t Look for Love

T HE GAY BDSM biker movie Pil lion fits surprisingly well into the romantic comedy formula, deftly interweaving comedy, drama, and romance. But those expecting a trope heavy film about love and acceptance will be sorely disappointed. Director Harry Lighton has leveraged the familiarity of the

Skarsgård’s performances. The tension be tween the two is always palpable, though few words pass between them, as so much is communicated by touch, eye contact, and the gasps and groans that punctuate Pil lion ’s many sex scenes. The lead actors have a remarkable ability to balance erotic intensity with physical comedy, a feat that

C ASPER B YRNE

PILLION Directed by Harry Lighton Warner Brothers

adds to the depth and believability of their relationship. Pillion ’s masterful coupling of ecstasy and slapstick also speaks to the distinctly queer language of pleasure, one that evades the con straints of romance and the possibility of procreation. Instead, pleasure is both a communal project and an internal journey, one that Lighton depicts as simultaneously raw and tender. Lighton is keen to dispel the tropes that typically define queer narratives and isn’t interested in telling a straightforward story of acceptance or suffering. Instead, he delves into the dif ficulties queer people face in navigating the cultural norms that now surround queer identity, especially when “acceptable”

romcom formula to create an exploration of power, desire, and abjection within the world of BDSM, running counter to the tropes that typically dictate the structure and messaging of mainstream queer storytelling. Pillion tells the story of Colin (Harry Melling)—a meek, listless parking enforcement officer who’s uncertain of his de sires and smothered under his parents’ affections—and his sub missive affair with Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), a brooding biker who belongs to a BDSM-centric motorcycle gang. Colin is in stantly smitten with Ray, who senses in Colin what he later calls “an aptitude for desire.” After a tense encounter at a local pub

and an awkward hookup in an alleyway, Ray shatters Colin’s cozily claustrophobic life, plung ing him into a world of rubber, leather, and sex. While the setup of Pillion suggests a standard “opposites attract” story, juxtaposition is central to the film’s construction, charting Colin’s tran sition from meek suburbanite to modern queer man. As such, many of Pillion ’s most compelling dualisms emerge from Lighton’s visuals. Colin’s suburban world is depicted as cramped, over flowing, and as Lighton described it in an inter view, “past its sell-by date.” The support of his family is comforting, but the atmosphere is sti fling, a feeling akin to being trapped in an over crowded room. The first hint that Colin may want something more comes when he unknowingly watches Ray overtake his family’s car on a motorcycle, sym bolic of Colin’s burgeoning aspirations of free

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion .

queer behavior seems to preclude kink and the articulation of complex desires. Colin’s parents support their gay son, but his arrangement with Ray makes them deeply uncomfortable. The lack of any legible romance or love causes them to view the relationship as abusive, which leads to a standoff between Ray and Colin’s mother. Dying of cancer, his mother is deeply invested in help ing her son to find a partner. Ray rejects her efforts, calling her bigoted for trying to dictate what a healthy relationship should look like. However, even in Ray’s seemingly liberated world, Colin finds himself similarly trapped, unable to articulate his need for intimacy or alter the specifics of their relationship. The film frames Ray not as an antidote to Colin’s unhappiness but as a complex person similarly ruled by his emotional limitations. Pillion doesn’t beg for understanding from its characters or

dom. Pillion presents Ray’s world as electrified and open, set convincingly to the thrum of engines and the exhalations of leather being unzipped by steady hands. Ray is defined by an overarching minimalism, one that Lighton visually associates with empty highways, open fields, and the raw possibilities of nature. The motorcycle serves as both a gateway to these fron tiers and a site of intimacy between Colin and Ray. Although Colin remains a passenger (now the titular pillion), the cramped interior of his family car has been replaced by rushing air and a thrilling vulnerability. The establishment of Pillion ’s contrasting worlds—and their explosive convergence—is brought to life by Melling and Casper Byrne is a freelance writer and peer support specialist based in Cambridge, England.

March–April 2026

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