By Fiorela Gonzales

Strapped in leather and assless chaps, Pillion is the surprisingly feel-good holiday movie of the year. A comedic movie about biker gangs, BDSM, relationships, and living your life to its fullest. It’s a surprisingly funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking movie that delivers a world usually left unseen.

Pillion stars Colin (Harry Melling) as a shy and awkward gay man who sings in a barbershop quartet and works a menial job of assigning parking tickets while getting berated by unhappy patrons. He meets Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), a member of a local bike gang, in the pub one night, and Ray leaves him a note to meet him the next day (Christmas Day). Ray asks Colin to perform a sexual act on him in a back alley, and Colin immediately acquiesces. They soon begin a BDSM relationship, with Colin as a submissive to any and all of Ray’s demands. He cooks, cleans, shops, sleeps on the floor, and even joins Ray’s biker gang – now with a shaved head, metal padlock necklace, and full leather ensemble Though Colin falls for Ray and wishes for more, Ray keeps a very strict boundary between them as the dominant and the submissive. Ray eventually allows for a little more leniency, which leads them to experience a day out as a couple, much to Colin’s delight and Ray’s fear.

Though the film deals with very explicit content, and there are definitely some very explicit scenes – including one with the full biker gang out in the woods – the movie never delves fully into the freakiness their trailer promises. I’m not saying it doesn’t get to those points at parts, but I was surprised it didn’t delve further. Though not necessarily a negative, as the movie takes you into a world that would be inconceivable for most people, and hands it to us without judgment. We get to experience this world through Colin’s eyes, who, for the most part, is in over his head and befuddled as he tries his best to assimilate to the BDSM biker gang.

As we follow Colin maneuvering his way through this brand new existence, the movie becomes very funny. The movie never makes a joke of the BDSM or makes any cheap jokes at it, but Colin’s inexperience within this world leads to some very subtle moments that are laugh out loud funny. Henry Melling gives a beautiful performance as the inexperienced sub in love with his much better-looking dom, but he also has a lot of comedic subtleties throughout the film. Though not a hard stretch for Alexander Skarsgård to play a distractingly beautiful, leather-sporting dominant, he also gives a perfectly subtle performance where you know nothing about him, but learn everything you need to know about him and his relationship with Colin through his movements and actions.

What the movie does so well, though, is showcase Colin’s personal growth. Ultimately, this movie is not about sex, BDSM, or biker gangs. It’s about a man going through a journey of self-discovery, and Colin has a perfectly executed character arc that plays with a very nice ending. The movie starts on Christmas and ends on Christmas the following year inside the same pub, with Colin still in his barbershop quartet, but he’s a whole new person now.

Ultimately, Pillion is a movie that tackles a world usually unseen before and displays it with care and no judgment. It’s a great character story, a love story, and a very funny movie. And it’s also a Christmas movie. Maybe don’t watch it with your parents over the holidays, but it is a feel-good movie.

3 ½ stars