Naked (1993)

Wow! Such a good movie.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Johnny (David Thewlis) flees Manchester for London, to avoid a beating from the family of a girl he has raped. There he finds an old girlfriend, and spends some time homeless, spending much of his time ranting at strangers, and meeting characters in plights very much like his own.What to make of this film... is Johnny an anti-hero? We follow him, making him our protagonist of sorts, but can we really stand behind him? I should think not. Yet, we listen to his ramblings about bar codes, the Bible and Nostradamus and see how he affects people. Is he insane or just misunderstood? David Thewlis is an incredible actor and he is a joy to watch even when he might not be playing the most honorable person. Great to see him perform so strongly in the days before "Harry Potter".

While this film featured a cast of characters played excellently by the actors, it's plot was much too flat for me to fully enjoy. I absorbed both Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence through as explored by the film's character, Johny, as well as themes and motifs explored by the modernist writer, Samuel Beckett. Eerily enough, throughout watching this 1993 British film, I constantly had the feeling that I had already viewed this film.To end, Samuel Beckett's quote: 'I can't go on, I must go on' - while being a quote that may very well be overused by my subconscious - came to mind throughout viewing this film.

A weird film! The good bit is David Thewlis' Existential p**s-taking discourse with everyone he comes across - the bad bit is - everything else. Also, it's way too long. The charm had worn off. Ends up being long-winded and pointless - whereas had it been shorter it would have been bitter-sweetly succinct. Johnny, is the archetypal street philosopher, though instead of being a wise vagabond - he is in fact an on the run vagrant - on the run from life, that is. Also - who the f**k is Sebastian?All of that aside though, I have a real problem with Mike Leigh's films. He tries TOO hard to come across as authentic and real - and this effort becomes so conspicuous that it clouds everything else and it's all you can see. His films aren't authentic and real - they're the opposite of that - they're overdone and contrived. Most of his stuff ends up being a bunch of middle-class loveys performing their perception of an Idyll of plucky, chirpy, working-class folk! I suspect that the only thing that saves this film from becoming that, is the intensive involvement of Thewlis in developing the script and dialogue.Basically Leigh's approach in depicting authentic realistic working class characters, ends up producing a facsimile that is strikingly recognisable to the original article - but one that exaggerates the more obvious features - to a cringe-making degree. He creates cinematic caricatures.

Bleak and cynical and often uproariously funny. The bleakness would be overwhelming if not undercut so frequently with the humor of Johnny's rants. Much of the credit belongs to David Thewlis, whose brilliant work is comparable to McDowell in CLOCKWORK ORANGE or DeNiro in TAXI DRIVER. His character Johnny doesn't so much straddle the line between good and evil as he does swerve back and forth over it like a drunk driver. Johnny's darker qualities are neither negated nor mitigated by his charm, but his charm is substantial, with a wonderful gift for gab, a sense of intellectual curiosity, and a sarcasm-tinged but nonetheless genuine compassion for his fellow man buried under the bile. When Thewlis is on screen, he's riveting.Lesley Sharp is also superb as his ex-girlfriend, bravely attempting to maintain an air of stoicism in the face of Johnny's misanthropy, and Katrin Cartlidge is heartbreaking, if a bit shrill.The sour note in the movie is Sebastian/Jeremy, whose absolute vileness doesn't ring true in the context of the rest of the characters, who occupy much greyer territory. Perhaps he's simply there to make Johnny look not so bad in comparison. However, his role is small enough to overlook his presence, or at least consider it as the one truly rotten part of an otherwise excellent whole.