Set in Syracuse, New York, in the mid ‘90s, Carmen Emmi’s debut feature revolves around a young cop assigned to a sting operation that forces him to confront his sexuality.

With gay rights coming back into the crosshairs in almost every country across the globe, Carmen Emmi’s slow-burn drama is sobering reminder of just how far these things have progressed in the past 30 years.

Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey are fantastic together in, 'Plainclothes,' a familiar but fantastically executed coming out tale

The film, which marks the feature debut of Carmen Emmi, follows an undercover officer (Blyth) who is assigned to lure and arrest gay men. His life gets turned upside down when he falls for a target (Tovey).

Writer-director Carmen Emmi's debut feature starts off shaky, and overuses lo-fi VHS footage but there's no denying the film's raw emotion.