September is shaping up to be a remarkable month for cinema lovers, with three powerful new releases making waves across international screens and festival circuits. From a tense 1990s undercover thriller to an intimate British drama and a biting South Korean satire, these films—Plainclothes, Dragonfly, and No Other Choice—are drawing attention for their bold storytelling, nuanced performances, and timely social commentary.
Plainclothes, which hit U.S. theaters via Magnet Releasing on September 19, 2025, is the feature debut of writer-director Carmen Emmi. According to Moviefone, Emmi, previously known for his work on shorts and television, crafts a dramatic thriller set in the 1990s that dives deep into the conflicts between duty, desire, and family. The story centers on Lucas, a young police officer played by Tom Blyth, whose undercover work targets gay men in mall bathrooms. The film’s tension escalates when Lucas, at his mother’s New Year’s Eve party, loses a letter that was never meant to be seen—an event that triggers a cascade of memories and secrets he’s tried to bury.
The heart of Plainclothes lies in Lucas’s relationship with Andrew, portrayed by Russell Tovey. What begins as a routine sting operation transforms into an electric, intimate connection that forces Lucas to confront his own identity and loyalties. The film explores the emotional fallout of these choices, with Lucas caught between the pressure to deliver arrests and the growing pull of forbidden love. The supporting cast—including Maria Dizzia, Amy Forsyth, and John Bedford Lloyd—help flesh out the complex world Lucas inhabits, where family and professional expectations collide.
Critics have praised the film’s authenticity and its avoidance of melodramatic pitfalls often found in LGBTQ+ narratives. As Moviefone notes, both Blyth and Tovey deliver “nuance and honest emotion,” with Blyth especially drawing viewers into his character’s struggle. The film’s stylistic flourishes—such as flashbacks in various footage formats to denote different time periods—add a textured feel without detracting from the story’s impact. “Side-stepping many of the cliché traps possible in a story such as this, Plainclothes delivers with low-fi filming and superb central performances,” the review concludes, awarding the film a solid 75 out of 100. Emmi, it seems, is a director to watch as he continues to carve out his place in the industry.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the upcoming British drama Dragonfly is generating its own buzz ahead of its UK release on November 7, 2025. The film, directed by Paul Andrew Williams, stars Brenda Blethyn—beloved for her long-running role in ITV’s Vera—in a transformative performance as Elsie, an elderly woman suffering from neglect at the hands of her carers. According to Radio Times, the story unfolds as Elsie’s neighbor Colleen, played by Andrea Riseborough, steps in to care for her, much to the dismay of Elsie’s son (Jason Watkins). This seemingly benevolent act is soon clouded by suspicion, as questions arise about Colleen’s true intentions.
Dragonfly made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2025, followed by a British debut at the Edinburgh Film Festival in August. The reception has been overwhelmingly positive: Blethyn and Riseborough shared the Performance award at Tribeca, and the film took home the International Feature award at Ireland’s Galway Film Fleadh in July. Williams, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, reflected on the film’s ambiguous genre. “I like to think the end is horrific, but I don’t think it’s a horror,” he remarked. The film has been invited to several horror festivals, but Williams maintains that it’s not a traditional entry in the genre. “There’s music and there’s moments and there is a particular scare—which, I promise you, I never saw it [like that]. A super jump [scare]. And it really does make people jump.”
Beyond the shocks, Dragonfly is fundamentally a meditation on vulnerability, trust, and the complexities of caregiving. Blethyn’s portrayal of Elsie is already being hailed as one of her most sensitive and layered performances, and the film’s exploration of ambiguous morality is likely to spark debate when it lands in UK cinemas. For those eager for more from Blethyn, she’s also set to star in a remake of a classic Channel 4 drama, further cementing her status as one of Britain’s most versatile actors.
Not to be outdone, South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook returns with No Other Choice, a sharply observed satire adapted from Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax. Reviewed by Slant on September 20, 2025, the film opens with an idyllic family barbecue, only to quickly unravel as patriarch Young Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) is laid off from his managerial job after 25 years. The loss is devastating, not just financially but existentially, as Man-su’s sense of self-worth is tied to his professional identity and his ability to provide for his family.
The film traces Man-su’s descent as he searches desperately for a new job, eventually resorting to violence against those competing for a coveted position at Moon Paper. Park, along with co-writers Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, and Jahye Lee, uses dark comedy and farce to critique the brutal logic of capitalism and the rise of artificial intelligence. The Americans who lay off Man-su claim they had “no other choice,” a refrain echoed by his potential new employers as they replace workers with AI. Even Man-su repeats the phrase to justify his own increasingly desperate actions.
But as Slant points out, Man-su’s predicament is not as inescapable as he believes. He could downsize his home, rely on his wife’s potential career comeback, or seek help from family, but his pride and attachment to status prevent him from considering these options. The film’s personal stakes are heightened by Man-su’s fraught relationships: his paranoia about his wife Miri (Son Ye-jin), his stepson Si-one’s (Kim Woo-seung) delinquency, and his own moral decline, marked by a relapse into alcoholism that feels more damning than his violent acts.
Park’s embrace of digital filmmaking enables elaborate camera work and visual trickery, underscoring the film’s themes of technological change and environmental cost. The closing montage, juxtaposing credits with images of deforestation, serves as a grim reminder of the collateral damage wrought by both analog and digital progress. The film’s ultimate villain, however, is the system itself—one that pits workers against each other and replaces them with machines in the name of efficiency and profit.
Taken together, Plainclothes, Dragonfly, and No Other Choice offer a cross-section of contemporary anxieties, from personal identity and forbidden love to caregiving, economic precarity, and the dehumanizing march of technology. Each film, in its own way, challenges viewers to reconsider the choices we make—and the systems that shape them.
With festival accolades, critical acclaim, and timely themes, these films are sure to leave audiences talking long after the credits roll.
