It wouldn’t be Cannes without a good scandal film. For 2025, British director Harry Lighton’s feature debut Pillion may be the one that sends the most people clutching their pearls. Centered on a dom-sub relationship within the gay biker milieu, it features depictions of fetishistic sex acts that could trigger a few sensitive souls. It would be a shame, however, if all attention is directed at the kinks and shocks––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.

Colin (Harry Melling) is a meek, scrawny young man still living with his parents and struggling to find love. It’s Christmas and we see him singing carols at the pub where his mother has set up a date. It isn’t going well, but at some point Colin meets the mysterious, improbably handsome biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård) who,...