Tom Blyth and Russel Tovey star alongside each other in a new, steamy queer thriller, Plainclothes. Directed by Carmen Emmi, the psychodrama follows the story of Lucas (Blyth) as an undercover police officer who’s assigned to seduce gay men and arrest them for indecent behaviour. 

However, Lucas has secrets of his own. He is closeted, with his personal situation forcing him to keep his sexuality a secret from his mother.

At a time when queer hook-ups not only had to be pursued in person but could also be punished by arrest, the officer in question found himself following Andrew (Tovey) as part of an operation, taking his number to arrange a more conventional date. Throughout the story, Lucas has to deal with his emotions and starts developing a conscience about arresting men for desires he shares. 

Set in the 1990s, the story was partially inspired by an article about these undercover operations, which, as many people might naively think, didn’t die out early in the ‘50s but continued until the 2000s.

 

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The queer thriller Plainclothes had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and received many positive reviews.

Variety confirmed that it “successfully re-creates the atmosphere” of the time. Despite the gay cruising scenes not being as sexy and amusing as some other films, the outlet says it is still “encouraging to see these codes re-created by a young filmmaker, who uses mirrors placed directly above a bank of urinals to let the characters’ eyes do the talking”. 

“We had an amazing intimacy coordinator, Joey Massa”, said Blyth in an interview with Variety.

“Sometimes you’ll have a kissing scene and you go, ‘We probably know how to do this.’ But this was genuinely intimate stuff. It was really intimate, and really vivid, and Joey was incredible.

“It felt very organic. It felt like we rehearsed it in a way where I think Russell and I both were made to feel confident and comfortable enough that we could lead it,” he continued.

Following its premiere at Sundance, Plainclothes is expected to have a wider release later this year.