Plainclothes

As recent directorial debuts go, you’ll struggle to find one as vulnerable and brimming with fresh ideas as writer-director Carmen Emmi’s bittersweet thriller. Centred on second-generation cop Lucas (Tom Blyth), and jumping between chapters in the aftermath of his father’s death, this tense yet tender story follows Lucas as his youthful looks are weaponised to entrap gay men at a time when same-sex intimacy was criminalised in several US states. Meanwhile, he navigates sticky politics at home during the first big family meal without his father or his girlfriend Emily (Amy Forsyth), with whom he recently broke up.

Emmi pivots between mediums to externalise the disarray in Lucas’ head. A closeted young man during the time of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, his only frame of reference for homosexuality is the deeply misunderstood one laid out by the law, one that links those feelings to deviance. And so, shaky VHS camcorder footage (similar to that used by spying officers) is spliced into more conventional camerawork, with cinematographer Ethan Palmer creating moments of forbidden intimacy through startlingly close zoom-work. When Lucas is overcome with anxiety, his surroundings shake violently, the sound design cranked up.

Colour this the arrival of an exciting filmmaking voice.

It’s a little jarring to begin with, but as Lucas and target Andrew’s (Russell Tovey) relationship takes off — after a purposefully botched bathroom encounter — that unsettling rhythm amplifies Blyth and Tovey’s performances. The former plays repressed romanticism masterfully, at once a dutiful and caring man-of-the-house and a barefaced kid experiencing real love for the first time. Tovey has less screen time but is totally magnetic, playing an equally tortured soul who has grown better at keeping his guard up. Their forged pocket of solace in a terrifying world is crafted with care and compassion. It’s this that carries Plainclothes to emotional depths that lie beyond the twists and turns of its narrative.

And twists and turns there are. In other thrillers, the shock factor of some would undermine the delicate character work that courses through the film. But Emmi’s astute and empathetic screenwriting means that one doesn’t have to sacrifice the other. Colour this the arrival of an exciting filmmaking voice, then, with two central performers at the top of their game.