Magnolia Pictures has dropped the first trailer for Plainclothes, the Sundance award-winning thriller written and directed by Carmen Emmi — and it’s already setting off sparks.
Set in 1990s Syracuse, the film follows Lucas (Tom Blyth, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), a promising undercover police officer assigned to lure and arrest gay men. But Lucas’ mission takes an unexpected turn when he meets Andrew (Russell Tovey, Looking) and finds himself falling for his target.
The trailer teases an intoxicating mix of tension, intimacy, and danger. What begins as another sting operation in a mall bathroom quickly transforms into something far more electric. Thrilling, steamy, erotic, and so much more, it hints at a love story that’s as dangerous as it is irresistible.
As Lucas navigates a growing romance under the shadow of his assignment, the pressure from his department to deliver arrests mounts — pushing him toward a reckoning that collides with his own buried past.
“You can always tell when a man is hiding something.”
The story also flashes to a tense New Year’s Eve at Lucas’ mother’s house, where a misplaced letter threatens to expose everything. Surrounded by suffocating family dynamics, Lucas is forced to confront the memories and choices he’s tried to outrun.
In addition to Blyth and Tovey, Plainclothes stars Amy Forsyth, Christian Cooke, Maria Dizzia, and Gabe Fazio.
Magnolia Pictures will release the film in theaters on Sept. 19, 2025.
