The official trailer has landed for Pillion, a kinky, leather-forward romance starring Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling. Watch the trailer above and read on for the info.
Plot & setup
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Adapted from Adam Mars-Jones’ novel Box Hill, the film follows Colin (Melling), a timid traffic warden juggling shifts at a parking garage and caring for his mum (Lesley Sharp). Enter Ray (Skarsgård), an enigmatic leather dom who pulls Colin into a queer biker scene built on rules, ritual, and consent. The trailer paints a prickly courtship: harness fittings, cheeky wrestling, and Ray’s deadpan directive—“buy yourself a butt plug. You’re too tight.”
The leather world isn’t a punchline here; it’s a community. Colin learns what “pillion” means—both the bike passenger and the role in a relationship—while meeting others in Ray’s orbit (Jake Shears pops up). Crucially, Ray remains an enigma without cheap reveals, and the film leans into the clumsy, funny side of sex rather than polishing it into fantasy.
What Skarsgård is saying
“This felt like an opportunity to tell a story about a subculture I hadn’t seen portrayed this way – with so much authenticity,” Skarsgård said at the Zurich Film Festival (as quoted by Variety).
He was also blunt about the sex on screen: “You don’t shy away from it because ‘Oh, we can’t show men having sex,’ but you also don’t show a closeup of a dick just because you can, for the shock value. I think my mom will like this movie, and it’s about kinky gay bikers and a D/s relationship.”
He also praised the approach from writer-director Harry Lighton, making his feature debut following short films: “[Harry] didn’t put on silk gloves to tell this story… The sex scenes weren’t graphic for the sake of being graphic. We shot way more graphic stuff than you’ve seen just now.”
The run so far
After a buzzy Cannes premiere — capped by a seven-minute ovation and the Un Certain Regard Best Screenplay award — Pillion kept momentum through Telluride and heads to NYFF on October 4. And early reviews have been strong: At the time of writing, the film sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes — positioning A24’s release for a potentially attention-grabbing run when it lands in early 2026.
