The Independent by Clarisse Loughrey

What Lighton has achieved here is incredibly delicate, intuitive work, which never compromises on the story’s explicit nature or in the specificities of its subculture.

Empire by Beth Webb

An unconventional love story that finds pathos amid the PVC, this triumphant directorial debut bares so much more than flesh. Bruising and brilliant.

Time Out by Leonie Cooper

Pillion starts as it means to go on; aligning its oddly innocent nature with extreme, hardcore imagery, and managing to give screwball humour an emotional gravitas.

IndieWire by Ryan Lattanzio

It also never hurts to be anchored by two actors who are totally game and committed to that vision, and willing to go there, chains, gags, assless chaps and all.

The Film Stage by Zhuo-Ning Su

Lighton has made a truly provocative anti-romance that’s funny, honest, strangely touching. It’s an exceptional balance act that makes Pillion the unlikeliest crowd-pleaser.

The Daily Beast by Esther Zuckerman

Pillion is often very funny without ever kinkshaming, thanks to the wry script, Skarsgård’s deadpan, and Melling’s guilelessness.

Collider by Emma Kiely

It doesn’t coast on its set-up, Skarsgård’s presence, or the taboos it approaches. It handles all these and then some, combining a compelling coming-of-age story, an endearing comedy, and a sex-positive odd romance into one of the best films of the year.

Vanity Fair by Richard Lawson

The beauty of Pillion is that those of us watching on the sidelines are not voyeurs, but rather witnesses to something powerfully complex and human.

The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney

Pillion is less about the shock factor of some very graphic gay kink than the nuances of love, desire and mutual needs within a sub/dom relationship.

The Playlist by Gregory Ellwood

What this collection of bold artists has pulled off is a fascinating portrait of one man coming to terms with his own identity in a genuinely original way.