Forget tinsel-laden sentimentality. The most compelling Christmas film of the year isn't a cosy family favourite but a gritty, queer biker romance exploring a submissive-dominant relationship. Released last week, Harry Lighton's breakout film Pillion is challenging festive conventions and sparking fresh debate about what truly defines a Christmas movie.
The Never-Ending Die Hard Debate
The perennial argument over whether Die Hard qualifies as a Christmas film has reached a new verdict. An official poll by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) found that 44% of the British public believe the 1988 Bruce Willis action classic should not carry the festive tag, against 38% in favour. This contradicts the landslide support found in many local discussions, highlighting a national divide.
Critics of Die Hard's festive status argue Christmas serves merely as a backdrop, lacking core themes of togetherness or hope. This contrasts with postwar classics like It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947), which explicitly wove optimism and family into their narratives. By the 1990s, Christmas settings became a major commercial driver, seen in blockbusters like Home Alone (1990).
Pillion: A Stark, Festive Counterpoint
Enter Pillion, based on Adam Mars-Jones's novel Box Hill. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård as Ray, a leather-clad biker, and Harry Melling as Colin, his submissive partner. Its opening act is set in suburban Bromley during Christmas, where Colin's claustrophobic family home—complete with novelty jumpers and crackers—directly contrasts with the raw, unsentimental world of his BDSM relationship with Ray.
Director Lighton uses the festive setting to critique how queer relationships often defy the heteronormative domestic ideal that Christmas traditionally symbolises. The film's first date is arranged for 5pm on Christmas Day, behind a Primark, immediately establishing its off-kilter, anti-schmaltz tone. Like The Holiday (2006), it's decidedly not family viewing, but for entirely different reasons.
The Art of Unsentimental Christmas
Conjuring the season without nostalgia is a rare skill. Stanley Kubrick mastered it in Eyes Wide Shut (1999), where lavish Christmas decorations in New York parodied consumerism and framed a tale of marital distrust. Similarly, Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002) uses the holidays to amplify loneliness, as conman Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) watches his estranged family celebrate without him.
Pillion joins this lineage, using the festive period not for cheer but as a poignant backdrop for self-discovery and the exploration of unconventional love. It proves the best Christmas films treat the season as rich aesthetic and intellectual terrain, not just a vehicle for predictable happy endings.
So, while the BBFC poll may question Die Hard, a new contender has firmly parked its motorbike in the Christmas canon. Pillion offers a provocative, brilliantly acted, and utterly unique take on what it means to find connection—on your own terms—during the most complicated time of the year.
