"Part of why Ray's little glasses are so thoroughly delightful in a movie like Pillion is because they allow us as viewers to get to know him the way Colin does. The two strike up a somewhat unconventional romance after meeting on Christmas in Colin's local pub wherein their first date involves a back-alley blowjob and little conversation."
"It's almost a surprise when we learn, partway into the film, that Ray is a reader. Most of what we've seen him do is relatively butch: Have a big dog, ride a motorcycle, and wrestle. When we see him reading a Knausgård novel while wearing his reading glasses, the image feels like a punch line to a joke the movie has been setting up the whole time."
"In Ray's bare-bones house, spotless and white and lacking any of the familiar comforts that make Colin's life with his parents so cozy, there is a guy who reads contemporary auto-fiction who needs little reading glasses to do so. They are Ray's only feature that feels like an anomaly and thus even more hot."
Ray, a biker character played by Alexander Skarsgård, captivates viewers through his reading glasses—an accessory that contradicts his otherwise hypermasculine appearance. Colin, a sexually experienced man, becomes drawn to Ray after a chance meeting at a pub, seeking deeper connection through repeated submission to Ray's demands. Ray's glasses appear when he reads contemporary auto-fiction in his sparse, minimalist home, creating a striking contrast to his butch exterior of motorcycle riding and wrestling. This juxtaposition makes Ray more intriguing rather than less. The film deliberately withholds Ray's backstory, maintaining his mystery and forcing Colin to confront his own need for complete knowability in relationships.
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