Four Favourites: May
Harry Melling as Colin and Alexander Skarsgård as Ray in Pillion (2025)
Kedi (2016)
****
Director: Ceyda Torun
Writer: Ceyda Torun
Starring: Sarı; Duman; Bengü; Aslan Parçası; Gamsız; Psikopat & Deniz (all cats)
On the streets of Istanbul lives a significant part of its population: the cats. Director Ceyda Torun centres the personalities and carers of these felines, some feral, some homed, and all incredibly lovable.
Sarı in Kedi (2016)
Sometimes amongst the darkness you need a little light. Kedi provides that from the perspective of cat lovers, some of whom come to visit the cats in their chosen locations -- like the docks of Istanbul -- or who care for them on the cat's terms and conditions, like in the corner shops of the city. What shines through the most is the way caring for these cats brings new life to humans who may have lost their way during their time on Earth. Showing up every day to provide sustenance and affection to their furry friends gives them reprieve from thoughts of past trauma, or perhaps just a glimpse of beauty in the mundanity of their working day.
Crash (1996)
****
Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: David Cronenberg
Starring: James Spader; Holly Hunter; Elias Koteas; Deborah Kara Unger; Rosanna Arquette
James Ballard (James Spader) gets into a car accident and finds himself absorbed into the unusual world of car crash fetishists. Soon, the new obsession takes over his and his wife's lives.
James Spader as James Ballard in Crash (1996)
Most people mistake the word fetish for kink. The two are not interchangeable, and David Cronenberg's Crash reminds you of the differentiation. Having been left disabled a car crash, James Ballard (who is, confusingly, named after the author of the book Crash in a non-autobiographical, postmodern kind of way) finds himself fixated on the erotic brutality of automobile and human disfigurement. Ballard and his wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger) are already dabbling in the realm of kink, consensually exploring extramarital affairs in exhibitionist settings. But their newfound symphorophilia taps into a danger that risks their lives in the concrete setting of Toronto's expressways, developing a decline in eroticism as the film moves from sexy to repulsive in its explicit scenes.
Pillion (2025)
****1/2
Director: Harry Lighton
Writer: Harry Lighton
Starring: Harry Melling & Alexander Skarsgård
The timid Colin (Harry Melling) meets the domineering biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård) on Christmas Day after performing with his barbershop quartet. The unusual pairing initiate a sadomasochistic relationship, joining a polycule of gay bikers on their sexual exploits.
Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion (2025)
Branded as a "dom-com," Pillion depicts an unconventional underbelly to the world of gay relationships. The dynamics between queer men are more complex than the monogamous heteronormativity understood by the majority of Western society, which can leave them scandalised (seen in Colin's supportive-but-overbearing and terminally ill mother Peggy, played by Lesley Sharp). What Pillion understands is that a community rejected by mainstream society will construct its own rules and boundaries for sex and romance, which can just as easily be exploited by those more well-versed than its less experienced members. Whilst many might clutch their pearls at Pillion's portrayal of BDSM, it demonstrates a nuance to self-discovery through toxicity that is not condoned, but merely acknowledged.
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025)
*****
Director: Mary Bronstein
Writer: Mary Bronstein
Starring: Rose Byrne; Conan O'Brien; Danielle Macdonald; ASAP Rocky
As Linda (Rose Byrne) cares for her sick daughter through constant hospital visits whilst her husband (Christian Slater) is stationed overseas for work, the ceiling in their apartment collapses. Forced to continue her work as a psychotherapist whilst having sleepless nights sharing a motel room with her daughter, Linda finds herself absorbed into another plain of reality.
Rose Byrne as Linda in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (2025)
A film about motherhood from the perspective of a woman stuck in life's U-bend. What is most striking about Mary Bronstein's If I Had Legs I'd Kick You isn't solely the trauma of being a mother to a sick child, but more so the reality of having to be someone who cares for everyone else more than themselves. In showing a woman attempting to maintain normality in the face of total upheaval whilst her acquaintances, healthcare workers, husband, and therapist all roll their eyes at her inability to function, Byrne and Bronstein have created a character who is both utterly hopeless yet entirely relatable. What Linda lives through is not a coming-of-age, but more so a regression, and not as such a descent into madness, but a succumbing to the nihilism of the everyday.
