Pillion | NYFF 2025
By Jeffery Berg October 16, 2025
A bold and remarkably assured feature directorial debut plays out mostly like a fizzy—albeit sexually explicit—romantic comedy, with deep dramatic undertones.
A bold and remarkably assured feature directorial debut plays out mostly like a fizzy—albeit sexually explicit—romantic comedy, with deep dramatic undertones.
Another in Kelly Reichardt’s canon of deceptively modest stories of ordinary people set within a specific place and time.
Director Park Chan-wook takes as his blueprint Donald E Westlake’s lean and mean bloodbath The Ax (1997) and makes the macabre and cynical tale his own.
This is not easy viewing, but it is informative, impressive, and horrifying.
The standouts here are its neon-lit fights, digital worlds, and the moody score by Nine Inch Nails.
The musical gives Jennifer Lopez a chance to unleash all her superstar powers—both musical and cinematic.
The film wouldn’t work nearly as well without Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst and their palpable chemistry.
With a sly undercurrent of darkness, Jay Kelly is more bitter than sweet. It’s far richer and more complex than you might expect.