EJ Moreno with a video review of Plainclothes…
In this 1990s-set thriller, viewers are taken back to a forgotten time in gay history. Plainclothes is a look at cruising and the erotic dangers that come with it. In my detailed review, the film opens up the door for a conversation on the most infamous cases of cruising going wrong, as well as its importance to this era. Somehow, the chaotic nature of the film allows us to have this intensely erotic, terrifyingly paranoid, honest look at yearning.
Tom Blyth serves up a hot meal, and we (along with Russell Tovey) are eating it up. Check out the review below, and be sure to follow us on YouTube for more reviews, exclusive interviews, and other video content…
Set in 1990s Syracuse and featuring breakout performances from stars Tom Blyth (HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES) and Russell Tovey (LOOKING), director Carmen Emmi’s Sundance award-winning thriller follows a promising undercover officer (Blyth) assigned to lure and arrest gay men who defies orders when he falls in love with a target (Tovey).
At his mother’s New Year’s Eve party Lucas, 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, 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. With time running out and his past closing in, PLAINCLOTHES builds toward a New Year’s Eve reckoning where everything he’s buried threatens to erupt.
SEE ALSO: Read our written review of Plainclothes here
Plainclothes is set for limited release in the United States on September 19th 2025.
