classicsoncall Movies like this don't appeal to me on the surface level. Principal characters with a negative attitude and quarrelsome disposition are an immediate turn-off. But Johnny (David Thewlis) is a train wreck in motion and it's hard to avert one's attention from his intelligent dialog, difficult to separate from the idea that he's a social misfit of the first order. Director Mike Leigh makes this film a statement about homelessness, urban alienation, sexual violence and drug abuse, and does so in a masterful way as Johnny makes his way amid a London underbelly on the verge of disintegration. The picture offers any number of derelict characters, and the one that transfixed me the most was that whiplash-head guy who looked like he might have just stepped off a Saturday Night Live set. He would have been right at home with someone like Massive Head Wound Harry. For all his dysfunctional behavior, it was the paper hanger guy who eventually got around to doing what I would have liked to do to Johnny myself, and for a film and an actor to elicit that kind of reaction, it has to be firing on all cylinders. Not for the faint hearted, but if you're having a bad day, this is the kind of picture that might actually lift your spirits.

videorama-759-859391 Naked is something of a welcoming surprise, when I first saw it in 94', and in my opinion, was one of the best films I saw that year. The film works, mostly due to an incredible and original performance, that of David Thewlis, where the other two female leads are almost as good, especially, Cartidge, as the dependent Sophie, a heroin user, who's forced into performing some sex acts by the the conniving, malicious, and lonely pig of a landlord, Jeremy (Crustwell) though we're not sure he really is one at this point, when he makes this sudden intrusion. That's the thing about this film, every character is lonely, one such character, a night security guard, guarding what high strung and reckless 90's hero Johnny, (Thewlis) comically terms as "Space" which honestly is what he really he is doing. The film has an explosive and dramatic start with Johnny screwing a woman, where if it's rape, it's discernible, but with Johnny taking off quick to avoid a bashing, it must be. He arrives in Manchester and takes harborage at his ex-girlfriend's, Louise (Sharp) place. She's painfully lonely, obvious as day, where you don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize she envies the more outward and sex loving Sophie. Starting up a relationship, with Johnny, where really she's suffocating him, he goes out on a solo walk, into the night cold. Thus begins a journey where he meets a collection of people, first two homeless drug users, a pre Trainspotting face, and very un Spud like. Basically the others are unhappy, discontent loners, one woman even creeping Johnny out. Naked, I must warn you, is surprisingly, and bloody funny, from an A1 script, insightful and sharp, ala: Mike Leigh, where Thewlis is lumbered with a lot, bringing a performance of reality that just paralyses you. Too Crustwell, who I only saw in another film was impressive as his character was a horrible being, but there we're reasons. After all, he informs us he's going to commit suicide when reaching the big 40. And he can get rough too. Near the end, we really see the characters for what they are, and that includes Crustwell: lonely. Again being Mike Leigh, what we have is a situation set, through the motions movie, that probably would of had rehearsed improv, All 4 leads deliver solid performances, but none finer than Thewlis, where I had to see more of this guy. As this being the only other Leigh film, I've seen besides Meantime, which I really liked, this is that controversial, stand out from the rest of the directors flick, where we have a brave, daring and bloody film, one set apart from all of Leigh's others. At the end, as Johnny departs, the relentless loser, we're actually sad to see him go, in a film, every movie connisseur, should put down as a must see, but more so, a must see Thewlis performance, one which will have a lingering effect on the viewer, years after it's watch. The title reveals a lot too.

Chris L In a drab, glacial, shabby London, Mike Leigh offers a disjointed succession of encounters you can't seem to grasp the essence of and that nothing, or almost nothing can be drawn from.As the main character, you wonder in a mass of raw ideas that for some are incredibly under-exploited, like Johnny's past and his physical and mental condition, and that for others are rather unrealistic, like the feminine behaviour in general.Paradoxically, the movie is very talkative in philosophical theories and other mystical tirades, and meaningless. Not to mention that with a duration of a little more than two hours, one can't say this movie is very digestible.What was the goal of the movie ? Which themes the director wanted to address ? What was the message he wanted to convey ? So many questions left unanswered.

Spikeopath Naked is written and directed by Mike Leigh. It stars David Thewlis, Lesley Sharp, Katrin Cartlidge, Greg Cruttwell, Claire Skinner, Peter Wright, Ewen Bremner and Gina McKee. Music is by Andrew Dickinson and cinematography by Dick Pope.Johnny (Thewlis) is an unemployed wastrel who has to flee Manchester after indulging in his sexually violent proclivities. Heading for London to seek out an old girlfriend, Johnny encounters a number of people more hapless and lost than he is.Proles, Plebs and Potheads.Mike Leigh's brutal and raw character study remains as potent today as it was on release in post Thatcher Britain. Sometimes coined as a film for masochists or misogynists, Naked is actually for neither. For sure it isn't setting out to cheer you up, it's relentlessly restless and intense, it doesn't cut corners or operate under a banner of political convenience. Yet it does have intelligent depth to the point where the deeper you dig the more troubling Leigh's observations become. This allows Leigh and his brilliant cast to leave indelible images, to bring out themes that simply refuse to leave the conscious, where the observation of a society filled with sad, lonely and desperate people provides the discomfort of the human form stripped, well, naked.Ever seen a dead body?Only my own…Johnny is an intellectual, an intelligent man, even charming, he can chat freely on the world and man's existence in it. But he has unhealthy appetites and a knack for latching onto emotional discord. Posit this with a backdrop of dirty streets, cheap cafés and grungy flats, and there's a starkness about the narrative that scars the soul, aided considerably by Dickinson's edgy violin based score and Pope's stripped back colour photography. A concurrent character study with that of Johnny is that of Jeremy/Sebastian (Cruttwell), the definition of Yuppiedom gone wrong, the devil with a Filofax who is both cruel and predatory, he's the polar opposite of scruffy Johnny, but both represent a London that's far from the bright lights and big city so many hopeless dreamers set off in search of.A sick boy in search of Booze, Beans and a Bath.The Jeremy/Sebastian axis feels very much like satire, this also is something that makes Naked so strong, it is quite often funny. True, the humour here is clinical and comes in spiked barbs, but there are laughs to be had here, the kind that deftly dovetail with a pervading sense of bleakness, finding wit in the most unlikely of places. What is Leigh trying to say in all this? As usual he isn't offering up solutions to his questions, he demands you observe and respond, while he asks his actors to take the material and respond in kind, which they do, led by a quite extraordinary performance by Thewlis. Cannes agreed, awarding Thewlis with the Best Actor Award whilst also bestowing Leigh with the Best Director Award. Both were richly deserved.Never gratuitous, Naked is a sensitive and thoughtful film, yes it's tough to witness at times, it's meant to be, but this is a searing masterpiece that demands to be seen more than once. 10/10