Queerguru reviews the World Premiere of PLAIN CLOTHES destined to be one of the best queer movies of 2025

 

One of the rewards for facing the bitter cold of a Utah winter is catching the world premiere of the wee gem of a new queer film at Sundance.  Top of our list this year of highly anticipated movies was the feature film debut of writer/director Carmen Emmi. His PLAIN CLOTHES is a love story that turns into a thriller set in 1997 that reminds us of how our community was harassed and persecuted as some authorities still bore anger that homosexuality had been legalized.

This is the story Lucas a young cop  (a breakthrough performance by young Brt actor Tom Blyth) who because of his good looks is assigned to a sting operation, arresting gay men cruising for sex in a mall in Syracuse, New York.  The timing for his new job is not good as one of the reasons he has just broken up with his live-in girlfriend is that he suspects he may actually be attracted to men too.

 

The inevitable happens and one day he finds an immediate attraction to Andrew (queer Brit hottie Russell Tovey) who slips him a phone number before scurrying out of the Toilets.  It takes time before Lucas uses the number and when the two men meet surreptitiously there is an immediate mutal attraction. Kudos to both men for making their connection authentically passionate, and they agree to meet up again where they can physically rip each other’s clothes off.

Throughout all this Andrew keeps insisting that this must only be a one-off never to be repeated but without explaining why.  Meanwhile, Lucas has fallen totally for Andrew who has not just taken his gay cherry, but he feels he could be the perfect boyfreind. He is right and he is not prepared to lose Andrew so quickly using Police facilities he manages to track him down so he can confront him face to face.

The ‘love story’ part of Plain Clothes is both sad and sexy but it is impossible not to be totally captivated.  The sad part is that although this is set in the dark part of queer history, in this present uncertain political, it could very easily rear its ugly head again 

 

https://queerguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/YT5s.io_AQO5h_DhSxo1WLzt8orhSRDllcofN6od1_cxw9DpNQ4IXcDDBemVZJpJjwlsJ2vaN-VwkvBu_aQA6lavvx3L5LT0TX461V_8uCQ3ajo.mp4

 

ROGER WALKER-DACK.

Creator, Owner, Editor-in-Chief.  Miami Beach, FL / Provincetown, MA

Member of G.A.L.E.C.A. (Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association) and NLGJA The Association of LGBT Journalists. and The Online Film Critics Society. Ex Contributing Editor The Gay Uk & Contributor Edge Media Former CEO and Menswear Designer of  Roger Dack Ltd in the UK ‘one of the hardest-working journalists in the business‘ Micheal Goff of Towleroad