HBO Max kicked off the weekend by adding A24’s Pillion to its streaming library. This came four months after the movie debuted in the United States, and it wasn’t long for it to find streaming success upon its arrival on streaming.
In just one day, Pillion quickly rose on the streaming charts, currently ranked at No. 4 on the list of the top movies available on HBO Max in the United States (via FlixPatrol). With a budget of around $1 million, the movie made $6.5 million during its quiet theatrical run, and critics would say that it deserves to be seen by more audiences on streaming. Its Rotten Tomatoes score is nearly perfect at 99%, and it also won Best Screenplay after its world premiere at Cannes.
Pillion Earned Universal Praise From Critics
Based on the 2020 novel Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones, Pillion was written and directed by Harry Lighton, marking the filmmaker’s first feature-length movie. Harry Melling (Harry Potter) stars as Colin, a timid parking enforcement officer who starts an intense BDSM relationship with a charismatic biker named Ray (Alexander Skarsgård, True Blood). As the relationship progresses, Colin begins to question whether he’s genuinely happy with this new lifestyle, or if he’s replacing one form of unhappiness with another.
While the movie has explicit BDSM elements, it has also been praised for exploring themes of love, power, identity, and self-worth. The film has also garnered acclaim for its humor, described as emotionally nuanced as a movie that’s both tender and funny. The performances of the lead actors have also greatly contributed to Pillion earning such high praise from the majority of critics.
“Pillion is a hell of a film,” reviewer Graeme Tuckett of The Post NZ said about the movie. “It is laugh-out-loud funny, often. But also moving and insightful about everything from male loneliness and dysfunction, to grieving and heartbreak.”
Another review by Kristen Lopez of The Film Maven adds, “Pillion remains one of the best movies of the year, one that is funny as it is relatable, romantic as it is trying. Melling and Skarsgård have a fabulous chemistry together. This is another one I can’t wait to experience again.”
Pillion Has Plenty of Humor Elements
Lighton has also spoken about how the goal was for Pillion to be accessible to mainstream audiences. That was why humor was such a big part of Pillion, and written in a way that it could be enjoyed by gay and straight viewers alike.
“The film is deliberately set up in the first 20 minutes to invite a mainstream audience,” he told Boston Hassle. “And some of those will be invited in because they’re able to laugh. But that being said, the gayest of the gays in the audience are also laughing. They recognize the clumsiness, which is often a part of those interactions, particularly within the kink space. I think it’s fine to not take it too seriously.”
Pillion is streaming on HBO Max.