PLAINCLOTHES Written & Directed by Carmen Emmi
2025 | USA | 95 minutes
Official Selection 2025 Sundance Film Festival
Doors 7pm / screening 8pm & Bar open 7-10pm
A quietly devastating New York police story, PLAINCLOTHES explores desire, secrecy, and the pressures of identity.
Directed by Carmen Emmi, this tension-filled coming-out thriller marks a striking debut, examining the perils of forbidden love and the isolating cost of living a double life.
Set in 1990s Syracuse and featuring breakout performances from Tom Blyth (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) and Russell Tovey (Looking), the Sundance Award–winning film follows an undercover officer whose assignment draws him into a dangerous emotional entanglement. As personal longing collides with professional duty, buried truths begin to surface, building toward a gripping New Year’s Eve reckoning.
Intimate, atmospheric, and deeply human, PLAINCLOTHES is a powerful debut about love, fear, and the cost of hiding who you are.
Filmakers notes
The idea for this film came to me in 2016. At the time, my brother was becoming a police officer, and I was just beginning to live openly as a gay man. I was shocked to learn about a 2014 sting operation in which undercover officers lured and arrested men in a Long Beach park bathroom for indecent exposure. The idea that sting operations such as this still existed haunted me, forcing me to confront the reasons I had closeted myself for so long. to process these feelings, I found myself reflecting on my childhood in Syracuse, NY, in the ’90s. I remembered deepening my voice, lying about my favorite music and movies to appear more “masculine” — more “straight.” I realised that, shaped by societal expectations of what a man should be, I “policed” my feelings and became my own harshest enforcer.
In the 90’s, being “gay” felt like a death sentence, amplified by the pervasive fear of AIDS. I vividly recall a mother in a Wegmans grocery line flipping around magazine covers with the word “gay” on them so no one could see. Without the knowledge, confidence, or cultural acceptance to embrace myself, I lived in a constant state of fear of exposure. Which is why writing this story for my hometown was something I had to do. I wanted to honor the place that raised me, even if I hadn’t always felt I belonged. Revisiting key locations — my childhood mall, the Landmark Theater, the greenhouses where my grandfather taught me to pot flowers — felt essential. Making this movie in my hometown and seeing how the community rallied behind the project was a dream. Their enthusiasm and support made the entire process unforgettable, and I’m deeply grateful for the way they embraced our work.