Pervert Pictures review of Pillion

Harry Lighton’s debut feature film is an incredibly British rom-com with an edge. Simultaneously banal, touching and naughty, Pillion is about sexual exploration as a tool to free oneself from suffocating self-doubt and outside control, that begins with a sex act behind a Primark.

Based on the novel Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones, Lighton’s adaptation differs completely in tone, offering something that could be seen as more palatable, but still offering a not always upbeat interrogation of BDSM dynamics. Often, the most difficult relationships can be the most transformative, which is not to say that we must experience toxic relationships, but that there can almost always be hope to be found.

The combination of well-observed sexual dynamics, no-holds-barred sex scenes, and inclusion of real, gay biker gang members (members of the Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club) as both actors and advisors shows a real respect for its subject matter. Lighton shows BDSM as neither an essentially positive nor negative act, not pathologising its protagonists, and allowing audiences to figure things out for themselves, and showing a side to kink we rarely get to see in the mainstream.

Read Pervert Pictures' full-length review of the film here.

Pillion is showing at HPPH from Fri 28 Nov. You can book tickets here.