I’ve now seen this twice. the benefit of having screeners, is when I have a film like Plain Clothes, where I certainly had questions, I can give it a second go before doing my review. There are so many little things I do all the time to figure out if I interpreted a film as intended, when the audio description doesn’t exist, and sometimes a second viewing is warranted. Not only am I a blind film critic, advocating for accessibility, but I’m also gay, and find that queer cinema is still stuck mostly in niche territory. Every once in a while, a film gains enough traction to have a semi-major release, and films like A Nice Indian Boy and The wedding Banquet land audio description. But for every one of those, there are twenty others. Just a few from this year I’ve seen that lean LGBTQ and have no audio description were Layla, God Save The Queens, pony Boi, Egghead and Twinkie, and History of Sound. So, it also eluded Plain Clothes, starring Tom Blyth.

Tom plays Lucas, a cop in the late 90’s who is tasked with stalking men’s bathrooms, pretending to be cruising for sex, only to arrest the men who proposition him.Things change when he meets Andrew (Russell Tovey), who he finds an excuse to not arrest, and feels compelled to strike up a relationship with. The film eventually becomes a thunderstorm of conflict between duty to his job, not being out of the closet to anyone except his ex-girlfriend, and this budding relationship with a married man.

There’s certainly a lot to unpack in Plain Clothes, and I found it richer the second time around. The problem is it isn’t driven purely by dialogue, so it stumbles through from a blind perspective. As interested as I was in Lucas, and invested in his future, I had a hard time grasping his performance since there’s no visual cues being fed through the audio description. All his acting choices seem subtle, as Lucas is not a loud and boisterous fellow. He’s calculating. The film requires it as he and Andrew have this clandestine romance.

I think a film like Plain Clothes does a hell of a lot more for this niche of gay cinema than Al Pacino’s weird, and before its time, Cruisin. This is more honest, real, and deals with issues as we naturally face them today, instead of someone’s perspective of what must be going on in the heads of those they aren’t, and seem to not know.

I did the second watch also because I had Plain Clothes right around the middle, and in trying to figure out how to go up or down on this, I ultimately landed on up. i did enjoy this more than not, and the performances are promising. I think I’d love the film more if it had audio description. Sex scenes in particular are so odd with no context, as it just is a lot of heavy breathing and moaning. i actually feel uncomfortable somewhat, but I know it has more to do with the unknown. I am much more in tune with scenes when I know what is happening.

Plain Clothes is honest, portraying internal turmoil in relatable fashion. the only dressing down here is for the lack of audio description, which would have turned it into a complete outfit.

Fresh: Final Grade: 6.3/10