Critique of the film Plainclothes by Carmen Emmi with Russell Tovey and Tom Blyth. A sensory gay thriller that does not leave one indifferent.
A striking first feature film
The director Carmen Emmi hits hard for his first feature film PLAINCLOTHES (title that refers to plain clothes, when police officers do not wear their uniforms). And offers Russell Tovey his best role in a cinema film.
A gay policeman in the closet in the 1990s
The plot takes place in the late 1990s in the United States (in Syracuse) and follows the character of Lucas (Tom Blyth, excellent), a young cop who evolves in a male-dominated environment. Recruits are pushed to toughen up, build muscle, and toxic masculinity is clearly established as the norm. Certain cops are also pushed above all to conduct operations in shopping malls where it is about trapping homosexuals meeting in toilets to have fun discreetly. Police officers are thus tasked with seducing gays in the toilets and once their prey begins to initiate a beginning of an encounter, they arrest them. Lucas, because of his youth and charm, is chosen as bait. His colleagues do not know that for a good while, the young man has been repressing his homosexuality…
The encounter with Andrew
Until now, Lucas has always reluctantly accepted to engage in this sordid racket, things are about to change when he finds himself wanting to trap Andrew (Russell Tovey), a very charming daddy with glasses. Unlike the other men he had faced in the past, Andrew seems gentle, kind… and he pleases him a lot. Lucas will let him escape and Andrew, who is married, will discreetly leave him his number saying that he will only have to call him, leave a few rings, and he will contact him back afterwards. Lucas hesitates then ends up contacting him. This unexpected meeting will lead the young man in the closet, full of shame and frustration, to take stock of his life.
A unique gay thriller
Very skillfully mixing a film about homophobia, coming out, and a particularly tense thriller, Plainclothes is a real slap on all levels. Already by its form, singular, taking up a kind of VHS / old camcorder effect to materialize on screen the traumas and vertigo of its very tormented main character. As a spectator, one has the impression of going on a full trip, of diving into his psyche both by this very effective and turbulent aesthetic device and thanks to remarkable work on the sound. Let’s be clear: in this little corner of the United States in the late 1990s, it is clearly not good to be gay. Lucas just feels that it is impossible to come out both to his homophobic colleagues and to his family. Homosexuality is endured as a curse or is related to something criminal.
A buried desire and “daddy issues”
Everything changes when the handsome and more experienced Andrew enters the frame. Lucas will feel a deep desire but also release feelings he had denied until then. After a whole young life of frustration, it is time to allow himself a moment of freedom, truth, pleasure. It is no coincidence that Andrew is the object of his desire: the film very clearly suggests “daddy issues,” a relationship to a deceased father who is sorely missed. Lucas is looking for a helping hand, a comforting man, a sweet and kinky dad to make his sentimental and carnal education. But will Andrew be the right one, he who is married and usually only practices occasional cruising? We are in a thriller so don’t expect a syrupy romance…
A tense and cathartic film
The whole is full of tension and quite nervous: both because of the missions in the shopping mall that will become increasingly tense, because of Lucas’ inner distress but also because of the thrill of his dream affair with Andrew and the consequences it will bring (and this up to a particularly breathless, intense, brutal and ultimately cathartic last part).
Masterful actors
Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey steal the screen in this labyrinth of impulses, frustrations and fears. From unbeatable and dizzying intimate scenes to tumultuous crises, Plainclothes electrifies its audience and leaves a strong mark up to a last shot that gives chills.
I found the depiction of toxic masculinity in the 1990s police force really compelling, especially how the recruits are pressured to conform in such a harsh environment. It seems like Carmen Emmi did a great job capturing those complexities through Lucas’s character.