Plainclothes: a gay policeman goes undercover in Carmen Emmi’s tense directorial debut

Initially, Lucas (Tom Blyth) is not an easy man to like. He’s a closeted gay cop who works undercover to entrap men cruising in public lavatories. It’s the late 1990s – a world before dating apps and legislation protecting gay men’s rights. On one assignment Lucas successfully entraps a young cruiser in a scene that evokes an infamous late 90s scandal involving law enforcement – George Michael’s 1998 arrest in Beverly Hills for ‘public lewdness’. On another Lucas encounters an older guy, Andrew (Russell Tovey), and immediately feels an attraction. He deliberately botches the mission, and a messy if fulfilling relationship develops between the men. Both have secrets, though, and their connection quickly veers into uncomfortable territory. Lucas is reeling from the recent death of his father, and his attraction to Andrew has a subtle filial undercurrent which adds a complex twist to the romance. Determined to keep his identity secret, Lucas uses a fake name in his encounters with Andrew, a decision with volcanic consequences.

Plainclothes is a punchy directorial debut by Carmen Emmi. He takes a nonlinear approach, effectively so, whirling around key recent moments in Lucas’s story, including a meeting with his ex-girlfriend and a tense family gathering soon after his father’s death. At times, Emmi mixes in grainy VHS footage to emphasise the sense of being constantly under surveillance, as well as establishing the time in which the film is set.

Blyth, a British actor best known for playing the lead in the prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) and the title role in the US TV series Billy the Kid (2022), plays Lucas with a façade of barely concealed anxiety and paranoia. He never relaxes. Even his tender scenes with Andrew, an apparently kind if guarded figure, have a nervous tension. He is a man in constant fear of being found out. Tovey gives a smartly understated performance, Andrew’s calmness simultaneously bringing a stability lacking in Lucas’s life while suggesting an enigmatic, unknowable edge to his character.

Lucas’s professional betrayal of other gay men reminds the viewer of the deep self-loathing gay men were still made to feel during the Clinton administration. This was the era of the Defence of Marriage Act and ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, a policy that demanded LGBTQ+ people in the military keep their identities secret. Plainclothes saves its best scene for last, when a family dinner whirls off in an unexpected direction following the discovery of a letter. The fallout powerfully shows the consequences of such institutional repression.

► Plainclothes is in UK cinemas 10 October.