Sundance film review: ‘Plainclothes’
The U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award Winner for Ensemble Cast “Plainclothes” follows Lucas, undercover cop in the ‘90s who specializes in the baiting and attainment of homosexual men.
This dynamic is shaken when Lucas falls for one of the targets: Andrew. Lucas explores, he engages, he discovers and he reaches a breaking point by which the door is opened and he can no longer close it. As soon as Lucas crosses the physical and emotional threshold, he can no longer avoid the feelings he’s been burying.
From the opening scene, Lucas’ anxiety presents itself primarily while he does his work. A Hi8 camera is used to embody this anxiety. It is not immediately apparent this represents Lucas’ anxiety, but it becomes clear later on.
Director Carmen Emmi said in a Q&A following the film the use of the Hi8 camera was specifically included to reflect the era in which the film takes place. They shot the opening scene a few times to explore different executions.
“Over time, it became what Lucas saw … I wanted it to represent his anxiety because anxiety is like the rushing of unprocessed thoughts, and that’s how I wanted these memories to play in his mind,” Emmi said.
The era of analog cameras and bomber jackets is also the time of the AIDS epidemic. Tom Blyth, who plays Lucas, and Russell Tovey, who plays Andrew, deliver a raw performance of the at-times agonizing and always complex experience of being gay in that time period.
Blyth depicts the intense feelings that can accompany the rush of embracing yourself with authenticity for the first time so well — each moment felt so real to watch. He also did a phenomenal job acting without words.
The concept of surveillance inspired the cinematography.
“I wanted it to feel like … something was crawling on you because I feel like that’s what it feels like to police your feelings,” Emmi said. The shots, the filtering and the sound design assisted in conveying this aspect of Lucas’ experience.
In reflecting on shots in this film, a shot in the scene where Lucas and Andrew first meet up comes to mind. They go to see a movie and stay for all of 30 seconds before leaving to poke around the theater closets. As they’re wandering, they pause and stand across from each other. A golden light silhouettes them as they chat playfully, which was a truly beautiful viewer experience.
Incredibly, the film was shot in 18 days. For a film so complex as this one, it is difficult to imagine the challenge this must have presented. The prep work needed to pull that off is unimaginable. Though after hearing from and observing the director, it is more clear that Emmi was a ray of passion and dedication to the actualization of this film.
It got confusing at times to follow the plot as it jumped around between different time periods, but in the end, they merged to make sense of each other. The whiplash of the plot contributed to the overall air of discomfort and helped build the tension into the final moment.
Plainclothes are the disguises undercover cops wear to hide their true identity, which inspired the title of the film.
“It also is supposed to represent the plainclothes that we all wear. You know, even his mom — she’s dressing a certain way because she’s fulfilling a certain role, and sometimes, these roles give us blind spots to other people’s feelings,” Emmi said.
It felt surreal to view a film with this subject matter here in Utah, and though the film itself was darker, the feeling of watching it was exciting and even hopeful. The thriller really kept the audience on the edge of their seat waiting for the next moment to unfold on the screen.