Movie Review: ‘Plainclothes’

Written and directed by Carmen Emmi (‘The Ultimate Evil’), ‘Plainclothes’ stars Tom Blyth (‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’), Russell Tovey (‘Years and Years’), Maria Dizzia (‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’), Amy Forsyth (‘Hell Fest’) and John Bedford Lloyd (‘The Bourne Supremacy’).

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Initial Thoughts

(L to R): Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey in ‘Plainclothes’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo: Magnolia Pictures.

Movies with an LGBTQ+ vantage point, particularly those dealing with characters who struggle with their sexuality, are tough to get right. There is a tendency towards histrionics or hyper-focusing on certain details.

With ‘Plainclothes’, writer-director Carmen Emmi largely delivers.

Script and Direction

(L to R): Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey in ‘Plainclothes’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo: Magnolia Pictures.

Emmi, making the leap from short films and TV work to features with this assured, carefully crafted debut, has created several excellent, heartfelt and authentic central roles that provide solid source material via a committed cast.

If he sometimes lets his stylistic side swamp the storytelling with flashbacks in various footage formats to indicate time periods, it doesn’t ultimately detract from the full impact of the movie.

Cast and Performances

(L to R): Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey in ‘Plainclothes’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo: Magnolia Pictures.

The highlights here are Brits Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey, who not only deliver nuance and honest emotion, but do so while both offering convincing American accents. Blyth in particular draws you into his character’s world, whether he’s working sting operations on gay men in mall toilets or dealing with the complex, twisty dynamics of his family.

And the supporting cast, from the other cops in the department to that aforementioned family, certainly do good work bringing smaller, but vital, roles to life.

Final Thoughts

Russell Tovey in ‘Plainclothes’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo: Magnolia Pictures.

Side-stepping many of the cliché traps possible in a story such as this, ‘Plainclothes’ delivers with low-fi filming and superb central performances.

Emmi establishes himself as a director to watch in the coming years.

‘Plainclothes’ receives 75 out of 100.

What’s the story of ‘Plainclothes?

At his mother’s New Year’s Eve party Lucas (Tom Blyth), a young police officer, loses a letter no one was ever meant to read. Amid the backdrop of the suffocating family party, the search for the letter unlocks memories of a past he’s tried to forget: months earlier, while working undercover in a mall bathroom, Lucas arrested men by seducing them.

But when he encounters Andrew (Russell Tovey), everything changes. What begins as another setup becomes something far more electric and intimate. As their secret connection deepens and police pressure to deliver arrests intensifies, Lucas finds himself torn between duty and desire.

Who is in the cast of ‘Plainclothes’?

Theatrical one-sheet for ‘Plainclothes’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

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