running to tie some shoes
a super straight review of PILLION // 2026 oscar picks
My goal with this newsletter is to write about new films as they reach general release, along with seasonally appropriate commentary on other cinematic events and interests. This week we’ve got a review of Harry Lighton’s debut film Pillion plus predictions and picks for (almost) every category at the 98th Academy Awards. This newsletter comes out every Friday, which this week means Saturday.
I’m finally here to provide what the world needs, a straight, squeamish take on Harry Lighton’s debut gay biker movie Pillion. Up until writing this sentence I thought a pillion was a thing that you tied someone to in order to publically harm them, so that’s the kind of informed perspective you’re getting here.
A pillion is the back passenger seat of a motorcycle, and Pillion is about a guy who likes to sit there, particularly when Alexander Skarsgård is driving. How he would feel about being tied to a pillory is never explicitly addressed, but given some other indicators I’d suspect he wouldn’t object. Harry Melling, best known to the world as Dudley Dursley, is a recently out barbershop quarter singer/parking attendant who stumbles into a Christmas Day encounter with Skarsgård, an emotionally repressed biker who likes to tell other people what to do. This works great for Dudley, who prefers to follow intructions, and soon they’re in a committed sub-dom relationship complete with padlock necklaces, daily wrestling matches, and matching copies of Karl Ove Knausgård’s My Struggle.
The central tension of Pillion is whether or not Melling and Skarsgård’s relationship, which regularly features mistreatment (emotional and otherwise), is healthy. A safer, stupider, smuttier movie would let us in on some obvious consent semiotics to assure us that all of this is OK. Instead, Lighton keeps us on our toes, asking us to accept the pithy takedowns and the bootlicking as they come without being told how to take them. Skarsgård gives concilliations of affection - little smiles, birthday cupcakes, check-ins about happiness - but this is classic abuser behavior to keep the needy party locked in. It's hard to identify a red flag when red is the only color you see.
I’ve spent a lot of this winter watching French Poetic Realist films from the 1930s, and it’s bizarre to see depictions of what 21st-century Americans are trained to read as sexual assault treated like high romance. French directors (especially Jean Renoir) use a variety of cues to tell us that an encounter that begins with menacing advances and retreating refusals is actually, for the purpose of the plot, OK for everyone involved. This is not the time to get into the politics of consent in prewar France - the point is we are trained by cinema to ignore explicit statements (it wasn’t until fairly recently that, on screen, “no” actually meant “no”) and instead look for cues outside the diagesis to know how we’re supposed to feel: a swelling score, the camera turning upward to a clear sky, a cut to two people smiling as they button their jackets. Lighton relies on none of that and presents sex without framing, which is risky business when you’re depicting a relationship that exists very far outside the typical boundaries of respect and consent. We’re forced to take the characters at their word when they say they’re happy - which is hard to do when we’re all wise to the emptiness of the word and hardwired to accept genre convention as truth.
The only concession Lighton gives to his concerned/straight audience is Peggy, Harry Mellings’s mum who is thrilled that her Diddykins is dating but not sure she likes that his boyfriend’s whole personality is being an asshole. It’s impossible to her that Dudley could actually be happy cooking his own birthday dinner or sleeping on Alexander Skarsgård’s rug. “That’s very close-minded of you,” Skarsgård rebutts, but is he just weaponizing progressive language to take advantage of an inexperienced lover? It’s hard not to see things from Peggy’s perspective. Lighton doesn’t tell us whether she’s right or wrong - we just have to trust that our boy will figure it out for himself.
There would be something voyeuristic, almost documentarian, about Pillion if it were just about the things some people do in their bedrooms and on the backs of motorcycles. But Lighton’s film is less as a look into kink than an exploration of a much more universal experience of romance, the struggle to figure out when love is opening up a new side of yourself and when it’s asking you to close yourself off to maintain its rush. The depictions of BDSM relationships are extreme, but they’re less about exoticism and more a means to depict a universal experience of love without relying on prescriptive romcom semiotics. I’ve never had the desire to be in a relationship with someone who makes me tie their shoes, but I’m familiar - I think most people are - with the feeling of making concessions for someone who’s better looking than me. What’s essential is finding the space where there’s enough of yourself left to keep on giving - it’s only there that love can happen. “Isn’t that - the point of everything?” Dudley asks at a point of confused desperation. He’s probably right, and finding the place where that doesn’t have to be questioned is something we all need to figure out, no matter what we’re into.
I receive dozens of emails a day asking for Oscars content. I think these awards are stupid but my readers are my Skarsgård, so here is an OK omelet of 98th Academy Awards content.
I’ve given a prediction, a pick, and a swap for each category. I’m skipping animation, documentaries, and shorts, because, to paraphrase Jia Tolentino, that’s none of my business. I’m basing this off a combination of instinct, informed research, and sentimentality. Use this as a guide to see these movies (most of them are streaming or back in theaters), to make your ballot, or as a starting point to get in an argument.
BEST ACTOR
Swap in: Stellan Skarsgård for Michael B. Jordan. I understand that the optics are terrible but I promise I will make up for it.
Prediction: Wagner Moura. I think Marty Supreme is sort of explicitly about how Timmy is never going to win an Oscar. I could see Leo coming back to reclaim his spot, but I don’t think The Secret Agent is going to win anything else and everyone agrees that Wagner Moura is just so handsome.
*lid* pick: Stellan Skarsgard. Since I can’t have that, I’ll go with Leo.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Swap in: Miles Canton for Stellan Skarsgård. See? I made up for it.
Prediction: Stellan Skarsgård. Stellan’s nomination in this category was a maneuver out of a loaded Best Actor mélée. I think it’s going to work. BDT is the people’s choice, but the people don’t vote.
*lid* pick: Benicio Del Toro. This is a newsletter of the people.
BEST ACTRESS
Swap: Amanda Seigfried for Emma Stone. There’s no reason Stone needs to be here again, especially if Jesse Plemmens isn’t coming along with her.
Prediction: Jessie Buckley. I’m not here to lose money.
*lid* pick: Rose Byrne. She’s good.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Swap: Mariam Afshari for Wunmi Mosaku. I don’t hate Sinners. I just wonder if 16 nominations was too many. Afshari, who I believe works primarily as a karate instructor, deserves some credit for what she does in It Was Just An Accident.
Prediction: Teyana Taylor.
*lid* pick: Elle Fanning. In a diverse field of breakthrough actresses, *life is disappointing* goes with the safest brand possible. Playing a bad actress is one thing; playing a mediocre actress and making it into an essential plot point is virtuosity.
CASTING
Swap: Weapons for Hamnet. Is this award just “best ensemble cast?” If so, get Weapons on the board.
Prediction: One Battle After Another. Is this award just created to give to One Battle After Another? If so, give it.
*lid* pick: One Battle After Another.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Swap: 28 Years Later for Frankenstein. Something we’ve never seen before for something we’ve seen plenty.
Prediction: One Battle After Another. Did you know this film was shot on VistaVision?
*lid* pick: One Battle After Another.
COSTUME DESIGN
Swap: The Phoenician Scheme for Frankenstein. Multiple teenagers have told me they think this is one of Wes Anderson’s best movie. Someday critics are going to realize that they’re right, and that they should have at least given it some technical nominations.
Prediction: Sinners.
*lid* pick: Marty Supreme. We’re long past the point culturally where a movie can change the way a generation dresses. But if there’s a film that could reshape Gen Z’s approach to suiting, it’s Miyako Bellizzi’s work in Marty Supreme.
MAKEUP
Swap: Marty Supreme for Frankenstein. What on earth are those pockmarks not doing in this category?
Prediction: Frankenstein.
*lid* pick: Marty Supreme by a thousand. If I can’t get that then whatever, The Smashing Machine.
I don’t really care about these next three awards, so I’m just going to toss out predictions.
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Marty Supreme.
SOUND: F1.
VISUAL EFFECTS: Sinners.
SONG
Swap: Pale Pale Moon for the Diane Warren song. If something else hadn’t happened this summer, Sinners could have just swept this category.
Prediction: Golden. Some things cannot be denied.
*lid* pick: Golden. Even by me.
SCORE
Swap: The Testament of Ann Lee for Hamnet. Maybe this isn’t elligible for some stupid reason. I guess I’d nominate Marty Supreme, then, but that’s probably inelligble too.
Prediction: Ludwig Goransson for Sinners.
*lid* pick: Jonny Greenwood for OBAA. Jerskin Fendrix’s Bugonia score was probably my favorite of the year, but Jonny Greenwood’s minimalism actually serves the purpose of the film, disappearing into the background, ratcheting up the tension, and building up to one of the most affecting dadcore needle drops in cinematic history.
INTERNATIONAL
Swap: I don’t think Guinea Fowl is technically eligible. If it is, get that in there. If not, give it to Resurrection.
Predition: It Was Just an Accident. It better win.
*lid* pick: It Was Just An Accident.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Swap: Peter Hujar’s Day for Frankenstein. It’s basically just a transcription of a real conversation, but that in and of itself is interesting, and to cut that into a compelling film is a small miracle.
Prediction: One Battle After Another.
*lid* pick: One Battle After Another.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Swap: The Secret Agent for Sinners. I’m not a Sinners hater by any means but I did not find it to be a masterpiece of wit or plotting.
Prediction: If trends persist re: Black directors, this is where Ryan Coogler wins big for Sinners.
*lid* pick: Sentimental Value. Does everyone hate this film or is that just a thing that movie podcasters say? I don’t know why the cool kids turned against it, I think it’s so good.
DIRECTOR
Swap: Jafar Panahi for Chloé Zhao. I do not understand this snub. It looks even worse now than it did two months ago.
Prediction: Paul Thomas Anderson. I don’t think anyone is debating this.
*lid* pick: Paul Thomas Anderson. One Battle After Another taught me that, in the end, I’m just another white boy.
BEST PICTURE
Swap: There is no reason Bugonia, F1, or Frankenstein are in over It Was Just An Accident. It’s stupid but not surprising that Weapons didn’t make the cut. One of the Linkletters, probably Blue Moon, should have gotten in over Train Dreams. Whatever. These awards are arbitrary and ten is basically too many to think about. Just leave it as is, we know who’s winning.
Prediction: One Battle After Another. If you’re counting, that’s six Oscars for PTA and friends. Sinners will slide in with four. Everyone else gets one.
*lid* pick: One Battle After Another. I have so little experience rooting for the winning team and it sure feels nice.
Thanks for reading *life is disappointing.* If you found this newsletter slightly less disappointing than the rest of your life, consider liking, commenting, sending me money (thanks!) or subscribing. Subscribing will get you exactly what you get here but sent to your email inbox. We’ll be back next week, probably with a review of Sirat.