Tom Blyth

Wasteman

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Taylor and Dee face to face

Wasteman is a particularly ingenious prison drama, though in many respects it ticks the usual boxes: hyper-masculinity, bullying, drugs, a top dog bossing the show with the tacit assent of the authorities, a rookie prisoner falling foul of said top dog. And this being the 21st century, drones and phones very important. Since the high concept seems preordained, the emphasis on detail is massively important. And casting is crucial – think of Jack O’Connell, remarkable in Starred Up. Or the equally important Tahar Rahim in A Prophet. And Shawshank, of course. Here there are really only five roles that matter. David Jonsson as Taylor, a meek prisoner on the last leg of a … Read more

Plainclothes

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Lucas and Andrew

“Pretty policemen” is what they used to call the cops who entrapped gay men in public toilets. Tom Blyth plays one in Plainclothes, an old-school gay movie in many respects, set in the 1990s and all about the trials of the closeted homosexual man. It’s intimate – human-emotions intimate rather than body-parts intimate – and if I say that Blyth’s undercover cop Lucas spends his days luring unsuspecting homosexuals into toilets, where they are apprehended once in a compromising situation, you will probably say “and then one day he falls for one of the men he’s meant to entrap”. That is exactly what happens. And it is more or less the entire story. … Read more