Pillion

                Harry Melling                      

Harry Lighton's Pillion is a good comedy of manners about a BDSM affair between a shy parking enforcement officer and a macho biker. Harry Melling plays Colin, a nebbish who still lives at home with his parents and sings with his Pa in a barbershop quartet. Across a crowded pub, he spies Ray (Alexander Skarsgård) and is instantly smitten. After they have an intimate encounter in a dark alley, the two embark on a relationship based on terms dictated by Ray. Colin is so happy to have landed the hunky Ray that he is quite willing to play slave to Ray's master, fulfilling Ray's shopping request, cooking his meals, and even licking Ray's boots upon request. Ray remakes Colin's image, shearing his curly locks, adorning him with a lock and chain, and gifting him biker togs. As in all relationships, there comes a moment when the initial rush of excitement wears off and things get real. Colin craves an emotional intimacy that Ray cannot provide. He is too emotionally closed to be able to open up to Colin. The film ends with Colin moving on to a new relationship, taking what he has learned from his unsentimental education from Ray.

Pillion is a slight film that works because it is expertly cast. Skarsgård is so lordly handsome and tersely stoic as an actor that he easily inhabits the role of the dominant Ray. Melling has the more difficult role. The film is centered on his character's perspective and Melling is often required to display his character's changing moods through his eyes and posture. He has shown already that he is expert at portraying humiliation in a number of his roles, especially his bravura turn in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. He makes Colin a very abject bottom, all to eager to embrace degradation in order to hold onto his man. Pillion confirms that Melling has emerged as the finest actor of all the Harry Potter tots.