If Heated Rivalry left you buzzing for more intense gay chemistry on the rink, A24’s Pillion is likely your next romance to keep an eye on. In a whip-smart, deeply sensual story of opposites-attract sparks that melds quickfire banter with kink-positive heat, the film will be irresistible to fans craving joy, heat, and heart in equal measures from these two unforgettable lovers.
Why Pillion Works for Fans of Heated Rivalry
Like the hockey melodrama’s rivals-turned-lovers, Pillion focuses on a pair of men who appear destined to butt heads: a quiet, dutiful son and an almost mythically self-assured blond heartthrob whose smirking grin is just this side of graceful. When they first get together, it’s a jolt that feels silly and clumsy and shockingly tender, replacing raw need with something sturdier, unexpectedly sweet.
Both emerge from celebrated books—Heated Rivalry from Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, Pillion from Adam Mars-Jones’s Box Hill—and both are shepherded by queer creatives. (The series creator of Heated Rivalry, Jacob Tierney, and the writer-director of Pillion, Harry Lighton, lean into graphic sex not as scene-making but as character work: each helping nudge the duo closer toward trust, vulnerability, and a shared language of care.)
Yes, for fans, the parallels are striking: a dark-haired romantic who’s at least close to his parents and then there’s the larger-than-life blond who makes the first move, as well as a love affair that startles skeptics even in gradually reconfiguring both men’s definition of partnership. The family meet-and-greet is a plot turning point—even played for laughs and, surprisingly, truth rather than shame.
A BDSM Romance With Heart, Consent, and Aftercare
Pillion’s boldest stroke is its unapologetic and loving depiction of BDSM. Instead of relying on shock value, the movie centers around consent, aftercare, and established boundaries—ethics that kinksters sum up in systems like “safe, sane, consensual” and “risk-aware consensual kink.” The dom-sub dynamic is addressed with unblushing affection, as this exchange of power makes a sheltered zone in which discovery and emotional intimacy can grow.
That puts Pillion in the small, if growing, lineage of kink-positive cinema—think “Secretary”—with sweet variations on a template given new life as a playpen for a playful and tender amount of gay romance that is also unequivocally hot. The result is a film that allows us to laugh at the awkwardness of firsts but never to laugh at its characters.
Festival Buzz and the Film’s Bold Creative Lineage
Pillion’s early festival word-of-mouth has been strong; Cannes critics have lauded its mix of comedy and drama, with the writer Siddhant Adlakha deeming it some of the year’s most “entertaining storytelling.” That reception was on brand for A24, the indie distributor behind such daring queer films as Moonlight—a Best Picture Oscar winner that made around $65M globally—to edgy indie film breakouts that prize chutzpah over formula.
Crucial to their alchemy is the casting. Skarsgård brings an intellectual cool that gradually thaws, and Melling’s openness and timing hold the film to emotional truth. Lighton never plays kink as a twist; he treats it as a language, and the film is fluent in how desire, play, and respect construct a relationship from the inside out.
Why This Moment Matters for Queer Romance on Screen
GLAAD’s Studio Responsibility Index has seen incremental increases in LGBTQ representation, but it also notes the dearth of wide releases that feature queer leads—particularly stories driven by romance first. Pillion is one way to help fill that gap, with a story that’s unapologetically sexy—but emotionally literate enough that it may just invite even mainstream crowds to view consensual kink as anything but taboo, as another way people love each other.
For Heated Rivalry enthusiasts, that means familiar payoffs through a new lens: opposites who uncover each other’s blind spots, sex that functions as character development, and a relationship that swaps secrecy for joy. But where Heated Rivalry takes its cleansing baths in visceral competition and hard-earned trust, Pillion does so in negotiated power, playful vulnerability, and the exacting tenderness of being seen as you really are.
The Bottom Line: A Tender, Kinky Must-Watch Romance
If you loved the chit-chat, cockiness, and colossal emotions in Heated Rivalry, Pillion is your next must-watch. It’s funny, unapologetically erotic, and emotionally generous—the unusual MLM romance that treats kink as a gateway to association while offering its viewers a love story that rides hard and lands soft.
