Plainclothes (film)

Plainclothes is a 1988 American teen comedy crime film directed by Martha Coolidge and starring Arliss Howard, George Wendt, and Diane Ladd. The film follows Nick Dunbar, a clean-cut high school student who goes undercover as a transfer student at a different high school to investigate the murder of a female student and to find the real killer among a group of suspicious classmates and faculty. Dunbar adopts the persona of "Jeff Jeffries," a leather-clad, rebellious delinquent, to infiltrate the social circles of the suspects. The film explores themes of identity, deception, and the challenges of navigating high school social dynamics while solving a serious crime.