What can be comfortable for some may be uncomfortable for others. And what is uncomfortable to you most certainly can be comfortable for another. It’s another component to knowing thyself. The crucial element to your character. “Pillion” is telling us that to know thyself is the single most important thing to have clarity on before you embark on a relationship. Because if you know yourself then you know what the perimeters are for others to be in your life. Winner of 2025 British Independent Film Awards  for Best film,, best costume, best hair and make-up, and best debut screenwriting for Harry Lighton “Pillion” has now gone for international release. 

The biker Rom-Com-Dom would correctly be assessed as a dark comedy but more is occurring than that. There is a risk to go exploited with this enclosed sub-culture, but the script understands its characters so not to be. Each action by everyone in the film is wonderfully formed to cement their personalities and have transitions. The aspirations of being free and the motorcycle being the means is presented in a way that isn’t trope. 

The story of  a lonely gay man looking for love and falls madly for a dominant attractive biker who treats him more of a servant is just on the surface. There are deeper themes at play. It’s good solid filmmaking and storytelling and we are not coddled or spoon fed into the world, we just go. 

Wonderfully crafted, not just with costume and acting, but also terrifically edited. This is the best edited film of the year so far. It may be in my mid-year top ten. It has that sustaining power. It’s bold, It’s tender, and new. Many things are going for it. It is a character study that there are no heroes or villains, it’s just people validating their way to go about the world without judgment or persecution to be who they really are. And of course,  how they can be of service 8/10