Naked (1993) User Reviews

Razor-sharp social commentary - although too harsh for many stomachs.

[Pedro_H · 8/10 · 6 November 2004]

An unemployed - but intelligent - social misfit goes on the run to London following a back alley rape, but finds The Capital just as desperate and alienating as his native Manchester.

This is one of the hardest films I have ever had to review. Topics such as urban alienation, career-choice unemployment, leeching, homelessness, drug taking and sexual violence would normally send me running for cover; but what we have here is so well constructed and so skilfully acted that it transcends it own headline topics.

This is a classic case of car-wreck film making: You don't praise or celebrate much, yet it is deeply fascinating and even hypnotic. People are tap dancing on the edge of a metaphorical cliff - some are there of there of their own free will.

Director Mike Leigh's semi-improvisational style doesn't always work, but here it really delivers something unique. You feel that you are watching real life even though too much happens in too short a time period for that to be the case.

This is a wandering odyssey film and features a central performance - by David Thewlis - that ranks along the best ever witnessed in cinema. How the Oscar people could have (totally) turned their back on a performance as a good as this puzzles; although the film and actor won prizes in Cannes and New York.

This is the first film I have ever seen that takes on sexual coercion in a head on fashion. People that have put themselves in a chemical or social situation where someone has something over them. The greasy upper crust landlord (Greg Cruttwell) might seem over-the-top to many but I know a few people actually like that!

(For the record his actions would be deemed illegal in real life - if you have seen the film.)

What happens to the on-screen people the day after this film ends? Has anything really changed? For Johnny - our central anti-hero - it will be just another day to duck and dive, avoid all work and wind people up using his extensive back reading.

David Thewlis delivers a tour de force performance that will always stay with you.

[DesbUK · 7/10 · 10 March 2009]

Now available on DVD in the UK for the first time, it's worth revisiting Mike Leigh's 4th cinema feature, 'Naked'. Originally released in the autumn of 1993, it won the Best Director and Best Actor prizes at that year's Cannes Film Festival. If Leigh's newest film 'Happy Go Lucky' is of a sunny and optimistic disposition, then 'Naked' is a far bleaker, inhumane and unsympathetic appraisal of London life in the drab and economically depressed early 1990s. It's a film of dialogue and characters - there's no plot. 'Low Expectations' might be an alternative title. Set over a period of just three days, 'Naked' has at its heart a compelling performance by David Thewlis as Johnny, a Mancunian drifter first seen having unsavoury sex with a unsavoury woman in a Manchester back alley. He flees the scene, steals a car and drives South to London to begin an odyssey through Dick Pope's darkly photographed nighttime streets and a depressed and colourless wintry London.

Johnny colludes with no one and belongs to nowhere. He evokes no sympathy but is also not unlikeable. He is always unwashed, unshaven and untidy Only 27, he is also in the process of physical degeneration. But Johnny is no uncouth yob or waster, but a firestorm of intellect driven by the Bible and the prophecies of Nostradamus. Between scrounged bites of food, this is his existence.

Johnny arrives on the doorstep of the flat of his former lover Louise (Lesley Sharp) and her doped up friend Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge). Johnny and Sophie share a cigarette, a joint and then have brutal sex on the sofa. Johnny leaves the flat and wanders through the night, first encountering two homeless Scots, then Brian (Peter Wright), a lonely security guard guarding an empty office block. Together the two men wander through the building in a spellbinding set piece of that is dazzlingly delivered by Thewlis at breakneck speed as he rants about the inevitable apocalypse in 1999 and how humanity will evolve from it's present state: "The end of the world is nigh, Bri"

Johnny is deeper and more talkative than anyone else. He subsequently encounters a drunken prostitute and a dim girl (Gina McKee). He is then twice beaten up: once in an alley by youths and once by a fly poster. Beaten and bleeding, he returns to Louise's flat only to discover Jeremy (Greg Cutwell) has taken up residence. He is the Yuppie landlord, something in the city and an excruciating caricature. Jeremy is a habitual misogynist, first seen asking a masseur if women enjoy being raped. He also rapes Sophie, making her wear a nurse's uniform in the process.

At the flat, Johnny has an epileptic fit and regresses back to his abused childhood. Louise threatens to castrate Jeremy with a knife, and has a reconciliation with Johnny. But Johnny does not hang around and is last seen limping off at great speed with £290 of Jeremy's money (which had paid for Sophie's pleasure) in his pocket.

'Naked' is visually and verbally about the abuse of women and a general overview of the intellectual themes of the late 20th century. Women in the film exist mostly to be put upon, whilst Johnny may look like the lowest of the lie, he rises above the rabble with a profound sense of the bigger picture. When Louise asks where he came from, he responds with a rapid fire description of the Big Bang theory. When she asks if he's bored, he then delivers a powerful speech about the problem with people is that they're always so bored - they've had the universe, nature and the living body explained to them and they're bored with it, so what they want now is just cheap thrills and plenty of them.

I kept wondering if the film were made today what would be the targets of Johnny's intellect? Celebrity culture, the war on terror, political spin, reality TV? The film is certainly over long and two episodes (the drunken prostitute and the girl in the café) could have been jettisoned without loosing anything. Thewlis, however, delivers a once in a lifetime performance that stays with the viewer long after - and I mean years after - the film has finished.

Amazing

[Robert_90 · 9/10 · 21 January 2008]

I hadn't seen any of Leigh's prior work before deciding to settle on Naked as a good starter. From what I'd gathered beforehand, I knew I could expect something that could best be described as "a gritty-feeling movie". In hindsight, I don't think you can describe Naked as being "a gritty-feeling movie". You end up describing gritty-feeling movies as being "like Naked".

That statement is pretty true – Naked is as bleak and unforgiving as they come. There are no good guys or any possible chances for redemption. Whenever a glimmer of hope appears during the film, it's obliterated within mere moments. The characters don't undergo any significant changes throughout the film. The film ends in pretty much the same way it begins, probably doomed to repetition until the end of the world. If you sit down to watch this, all I can say is "be prepared". Know what you're getting into.

Although the unforgettable feel of the film could be attributed to its verité style (filmed on the dodgy side of London with very rough-looking film), it could be better attributed to the protagonist himself. David Thewlis gives what's probably his best performance as Johnny, a man with few strengths and countless flaws. His eloquent monologues are roughly balanced by his harsh treatment of others. Johnny has very little respect for anyone or anything and it shows as he inflicts pain (physical or emotional, it doesn't matter to him) on everybody that crosses his path.

As bad as he is, however, he's oddly sympathetic in a way (especially when compared to a landlord who's as callous and sociopathic as he is, possibly more so). In a way, I could actually relate to Johnny (and not just because I have the same coat). He knows how bad he can be and acts accordingly, only because he doesn't believe in anything else or changing his ways. He just exists from day to day, just like any other human being. That's what makes Johnny so compelling – he really is only human. When karma finally catches up to him late in the film, we aren't glad to see him suffer. Johnny is the best kind of character, full of nuance that will make different people love him and hate him for the same reasons.

Even though Naked depends heavily on Johnny's presence, he is not the be-all and end-all of the film. The supporting characters are exceptional – the stand-out roles being Johnny's ex and her flatmate. Watching them try and deal with the sudden arrival of both Johnny and (later on) the landlord is in itself one very compelling subplot. A runner-up would be the security guard on his graveyard shift who engages in a series of debates with Johnny about time, life, evolution and the inevitable Apocalypse.

Needless to say, Naked was one hell of a film to watch. It makes me wonder exactly how I should rate it, if I should rate it. It's not really one of those movies where you just say "Oh yeah, very good, very moving, 4 stars." You're more likely to watch it and afterwards not say anything, just think about it. Those are the exceptional films, and Naked is definitely that – a dark, pessimistic insight into the mind of a human being who treads the fine line between self-destruction and utter dissatisfaction.

One of the best films of the Nineties

[Dodger-9 · 18 October 1999]

Having a bad day? Then check out Mike Leigh's masterpiece; the tale of Johnny, a mid twenties Mancunian drifter who heads down to London (having nicked a car) and tracks down an old girlfriend. He seduces Sophie (the excellent Katrin Cartlidge), unleashes a display of venom on his old lover, Louise (Lesley Sharp) and staggers off into the night when both women become too much for him to bear. His odyssey takes him to a world of the homeless, including an illiterate Scot (Trainspotting's Ewen Bremner) and his long suffering girlfriend (Susan Vidler) and a lonely nightwatchman (Peter Wight) guarding empty space. It's during this lengthy scene that David Thewlis proves to be one of the most versatile actors of his generation, delivering a speech of bleak complexity and pre-millennial doom that leaves most viewers reeling. Juxtaposed with Johnny is Louise's rapist Yuppie landlord (Greg Cruttwell), perhaps the weakest character in the movie. He's rich, crass and brutal, but also appears to be a sneering cartoon character, overshadowed by Johnny's hard edged intellect. Naked is the flip side of Leigh's previous movie, Life is Sweet. A bitter tale of loneliness, depression and Thatcher's wasted youth that seemed to be forgotten by most home grown film-makers in the mad rush to emulate Wall Street. Had a bad day? Then this is the equivalent of the Blues for the eyes and food for thought. Cheers Mr Leigh.

Savage, Brutal, Brilliant.

[El_Farmerino_Esq · 10/10 · 2 June 2006]

There are precious few movies to which I would give a perfect rating and none so difficult to justify as Naked. Indeed, when I mention the depth of my appreciation for the film most who have seen it tend to reel in horror whilst deriding its unpleasantness...

So how do I justify it? I could witter on about the brilliance of David Thewlis' performance, the excellent support cast, the devastatingly witty dialogue and Leigh's assured direction until the cows came home, but this still wouldn't totally do it. I can't say a lot about the plot because, well, there isn't a great deal of plot to speak of. So what is it?

I'll tell you what it is: it's the honesty of it. The brutal, searing, sickening honesty. Here is a film unafraid to hold a mirror up to the dark, venal, destructive underbelly of our society - a film that portrays relentlessly and unflinchingly a side of our character which we'd prefer to simply sweep under the carpet. It takes everything that is immoral, degenerate and depraved in modern society and smears it all over the screen in a grubby orgy of loathing. It is not simply a movie with teeth but one with rabid, venomous, acid-tipped fangs, tearing and gnashing at our pompous ideas about our own natures.

There are many movies which are fantastically enjoyable and make for a sterling night out with friends and family. This is not one of them. Naked is disturbing, unpleasant, frightening and utterly bleak. It is also quite brilliant.

masterpiece

[ajrussell73 · 10/10 · 11 April 2004]

"Don't waste your life" A security guard advises the nihilistic anti hero Johnny. This film is macabre, raw, and with dialogue as sharp as anything ever witnessed on celluloid. Mike Leigh created a dark brooding magnum opus with this portrait of early 90's London. His partnership with David Thewlis, who creates a fascinating and ribald character is simply astonishing. It is a performance that explores our very humanity.

This film investigates the existential angst as portrayed by the protagonist Johnny of what is to survive; the main character gradually reveals himself before us stripped of pretence and standing "naked" . Johnny's diatribes tinged with apocalyptic tones upon the nature of the universe and beyond are breath taking. Sex and violence under pin the narrative of this film, and with Jonny adhering to no personal boundaries he embarks upon a journey that takes the viewer upon an uneasy and ultimately rewarding journey .

The film is important as it shows the true power of the cinematic medium , and as a cultural reference to the pap produced by Hollywood; exposing the neutered offerings mainstream cinema is plagued with. This film shows Mike Leigh as a master of his art, expressed by the unique performances he elicits from his cast.

This work of genius will be stumbled across in years to come and be celebrated by later generations for its language, its mood, and its effect which makes us engage in our very existence. A true testament to a magnificent achievement.

Naked Owns Cinema.

[bex_purple · 10/10 · 25 May 2006]

My favourite film of all time and I don't even know why. It not only is repulsive but at the same time hysterically funny. It makes living in London a distorted pleasure as it is on my mind every day as I walk through the city that inspired such a piece. The theories that Johnny comes up with are not only salient but increasingly prophetic and it serves as a reminder to Mike Leighs brilliance that a film ORIGINALLY intended as a Post Thatcherite comment can now be seen as a highly accurate portrait of 21st century Britain. The dialogue is razor sharp and the thoughts and ideas explored may be too 'In Your Face' for some but it is a film that every adult should see. It makes you face what you are and that may make it an uncomfortable experience but the result is, for good or ill, life changing. For that, it is, to me the greatest film of all time.

aonemantidalwave

An existential nightmare

[Dadge · 10/10 · 16 October 2001]

Not an easy watch, for two reasons: first, this is an uncosmeticized view of 90's England, with little light in the dark; and second, much of the dialogue is difficult for non-Brits to follow. It's easy to spot this is a Mike Leigh film: the gritty realism, working-class characters and improvisation; but it's certainly harder-hitting than the likes of 'Secrets and Lies' or 'Life is Sweet'. But I prefer it to those other films because they suffer from overstylized characterization. What made this one of the best (and most critically-acclaimed) films of the 90s was David Thewlis's bravura performance as Johnny. Johnny is the plot, really. He turns aimless wandering around nocturnal London into an artform, especially the surreal visit with the security guard. Being a fellow northerner, I can see echoes of myself in Johnny, which no doubt adds to the film's appeal for me. But I'd recommend it to any intelligent viewer, not least because of the contrast it throws up between nihilism and nothingarianism.

Thought provoking brutality and bleakness

[rosscinema · 7/10 · 5 May 2003]

Mike Leigh has given us another look at bleak characters in England and here we watch a drifter named Johnny (David Thewlis) who in the first scene of the film is having sex in an alley with some woman very brutally to the point where it makes the woman run off shouting at him so Johnny steals a car and drives to a former girlfriends home. She's at work but her roommate Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge) lets him in to wait for her. Sophie takes drugs and drinks and is a punk type that can give the double talk as fast as Johnny can. Johnny and Sophie have sex and later Louise (Lesley Sharp) gets home from work. Johnny stays for some time but then leaves. Film follows Johnny as he meets different characters like a night watchman, a waitress, a Scot with a nervous tic, a drunk woman spotted from a window and a man who pastes posters on walls. Meanwhile Louise and Sophies landlord Jeremy (Greg Crutwell) is a very cruel and brutal man who somehow convinces woman to date him and then later he brutalizes them to the point where you can call it rape. He comes to Louise's home and takes advantage of Sophie to the point where she becomes a shaking mess. He wont leave and the woman are very afraid of him. Leigh once again shows us sad characters who are trying to get through life. This is definitely one of Leigh's tougher films and he always assembles a good cast to make the sordid and downbeat material easier to view. Thewlis is just riveting as Johnnie. A very smart and fast talking man who can dazzle you with his knowledge on an assortment of topics but ultimately he abuses everyone verbally. He seems unable to answer a question clearly and at times in the film I had no idea what he was talking about. How could such a bright man have fallen through the cracks in life? He has one thing in common with Jeremy, they both brutalize woman when they have sex. Obviously they are unable to communicate tenderness and it suggests that something tragic happened to them when they were young. The title "Naked" is a reflection on how these characters are placed in this world. Johnnie uses his intellect and fast talking to try and get through life. Louise has a normal job and tries to convince herself that she is normal. Sophie drinks and takes drugs to keep reality away. The last shot in the film of Johnnie is a haunting image as he stumbles down the street. Some of Leigh's films are an acquired taste and I suspect this one falls into that category. This film is a little overlong but those who invest the time will view some terrific performances headed by Thewlis and a film that offers a dark look at some characters who all have their own way of dealing with the outside world.

An embodiment of postmodernism

[robbert_uytendaal · 10/10 · 27 April 2023]

Hands down my favorite movie of all time. It has so many levels, that you can watch it 10 times and notice something new every time.

Johnny is the embodiment of postmodernism, criticising everyone who is trapped, trapped in space, trapped in time, trapped in relationships or trapped in a meaningless job. But simultaneously Johnny himself is trapped in his inability to commit to anything. (I've got an infinite places to go, the problem is where to stay). His now famous phrase against the urge for 'cheap thrills' to tackle the boredom of a society which has achieved so much, but can't seem to find any meaning in it, reflects also his own inability to find any joy in the knowledge that he has of the world and of the people around him. Only superficial and harmful sexual relationships and cynicism remain.

Simultaneously the film is about love, sex, meaning, and the feeling of loneliness in a city full of people. It is still as relevant as in the 90s.

Mike Leigh Misfire Is Still Worth Watching for David Thewlis

[evanston_dad · 7/10 · 19 November 2007]

Mike Leigh movies are never exactly laugh riots, but even with that "Naked" is one of the most dismal and surly films I've ever seen from him.

Actually, the whole movie was a bit too one note for me, that one note being nihilistic. Leigh only diffuses his relentless tone of gloom in the film's last few moments, when it lurches unexpectedly and not entirely successfully into a kind of screwball comedy. It's a film that basically says men are brutes and pigs, and women are spineless victims -- it's not a flattering picture of either gender, and it doesn't have anything profound or even productive to say.

However, and this is a big "However," the film does have one huge asset to recommend it, and that is David Thewlis. He gives a fascinating and completely unique performance as Johnny, a sort of vagabond philosopher who wanders from stranger to stranger over the course of a long London night, pontificating about the meaning of existence and brutalizing just about every woman he comes across. Leigh presents London as a city full of lost souls, vulnerable to the opportunists who may come along to take advantage. One of those opportunists is the enigmatic Jeremy, a well-dressed affluent monster who glories in raping women and treating them like dogs. If Thewlis and his character is the film's strongest selling point, the character of Jeremy is its weakest. The two men exist separately for most of the movie, only to come together at the end. I'm not sure what purpose Jeremy's existence in the film serves, unless he's simply there to make Johnny look better. Certainly by the film's end, we've seen Johnny behave miserably, but we've also seen him treat his on-again-off-again girlfriend with something approaching affection, and Thewlis is so good that he's able to let us glimpse enough of Johnny's charm to make us understand why any woman would be remotely interested in him in the first place.

This film reminded me of a Martin Amis novel. It has a slightly surrealistic, nightmare quality to it, and it's so caustic as to be off putting. But I would recommend it if for no other reason than to see Thewlis's remarkable performance.

Grade: B+

I must be the only women on here who likes this film! SPOILERS FOLLOW!

[Bon_Jovi_chick · 9/10 · 23 December 2004]

Okay, every review has a brief outline on what happens and here it is:

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 (Lesley Sharpe), and spends some time homeless, spending much of his time ranting at strangers, and meeting characters in plights very much like his own.

That's basically it in a nutshell. Doesn't sound like much, does it? Oh you would be surprised! Johnny rants a hell of a lot but most of it is very provoking, especially when it comes to the Bible. But if you cant understand the Manchester accent or the English lingo, you're not going to enjoy this because you wont understand half of what is being said or half of what is going on!

This film is not for everyone. There is no basic plot to it which is basically Mike Leigh's style and I was asking myself repeatedly: Where is this story going?

Despite this, it is very funny. It is mainly dark humour but Johnny shows off a mixture of sarcasm, intelligence and dark humour. In the first 10 minutes, I couldn't stop laughing at his wit (even though I don't think it was meant to be THAT funny!)

However, it's also very sexually explicit. There are a lot of several rape scenes and the consensual scenes include Johnny treating his women roughly. This blurs the reality of what is rough consensual sex and rape.

Johnny is a confused person and David Thewlis carried this off brilliantly! It is his best role bar non. He acts the way he does because that's the way he was brought up. Johnny is a genius and has his say for the world but form the way he was treated (probably by his mother), he's given up on life and the world and gets by being sarcastic and bitter. However, he has a good heart and seems to have feelings for one person: his girlfriend, the one person who he doesn't try to mess around with (physically or mentally in the film!)

Some people are confused because of Jeremy and what part he has to play. I think what Leigh was trying to do was try and make a contrast between him and Johnny. Whilst Johnny shows compassion, Jeremy has no heart at all. It does not justify Johnny's rape or rough consensual sex- it rather shows that there are nastier people in the world than Johnny.

After reading reviews from IMDb.com I found that women tended to hate this film whilst men love it. I wont say that I loved it but it was a good film and a lovely controversial (and extremely thought-provoking one at that.

Marks: 8/10

Graphic but pungent

[FuzzyWuzzy · 7/10 · 15 January 2002]

From the first scene Naked poses the question, "Can you handle this?" We follow Johnny, a brilliant masochist who doesn't care about anyone, least of all himself. He trods along London philosophizing and smacking strangers with his forthright sarcasm and wit. Very much in the same vain as Irvine Welsh's Acid House, Naked is a bumpy ride down the sad road of human despair and sadness. It seems to the viewer that each character could be no worse off than he is... but the movie continues. Violent sex totally void of any decent emotion is proof of the complete lack of love of the main male roles in this movie. Sebastian, a psuedo-rich, sick and twisted (and wholly unexplained) character is a poster boy for American Psycho (BretEastonEllis) Each character touches another characters life in an unhealthy yet profound way. To watch each character decompose to their core and then run off crying is to ask yourself the question, "Where am I going?" Mike Leigh allows you to take every character that is laying in the gutter and screaming in rage and offer your hand with a stern caring that is truly genuine.

Rambling Man

[kenjha · 3/10 · 15 October 2010]

A dirty, homeless man depends on the kindness of others for food and shelter and sex, although he acts like he is entitled. As the protagonist, Thewlis spews philosophy and Biblical verses, rapes women, abuses alcohol and drugs, and is unbelievably arrogant for a hobo with no money. Somehow he manages to not only find a bed to sleep on every night but also a woman to cuddle up with. It is unclear why everybody accommodates this ungrateful jerk. He is meant to be charming and intellectually engaging, but comes across as an annoying whiner. Carlidge is equally annoying as a druggie. Only Sharp is likable. There is no plot here. The film is just a vehicle for Leigh's rants.

Devastating

[thearbiter · 24 June 2001]

In my adult life, this is the one and only film that has ever moved me to tears with its ending. It was like watching Michelangel applying his final daub to the Sistene Chapel, the incomprehensible achievement of a perfect artistic vision, and the attainment of a transcendent brilliance.

For years, I had fantasized about becoming a writer / director, and actually put forth some appreciable effort to that end. This film, Mike Leigh's incomparable, unprecedented masterwork, cured me of that fantasy. He said, and did, in two hours, all that I could have hoped to achieve in an entire career, and it became gapingly obvious to me that I had no business in this medium.

There is no "story" here, except that of the distilled essence of the hopeless pre-Millenial Western man, robbed of the promised nuclear annihilation he had always consciously feared, but subconsciously hoped for, if only to put the world out of its misery. The naked and the lost, the wandering spectre of the sentient living dead, and the pitiful yet mercifully ignorant companions that cross his path.

One of the greatest films of all-time.

[inframan · 10/10 · 16 December 2000]

Another title (but with much less punch) for this movie might have been Truth. Because that's what Johnny's into: peeling all the layers of make-believe & let's pretend from every aspect of life. Which is why the characters in the film as well as many of the viewers of it are so uncomfortable in his presence. Johnny is just not polite to or considerate of other people; he Thinks Too Much. He's a contemporary Raskolnikov. I've watched Naked many times & read the script while viewing (I find this useful with a lot of Mike Leigh's masterpieces). This movie is dangerous & subversive to anyone who worships the twin contemporary gods of Fashion & Success. It totally demolishes the concepts of Security & Identity, the twin anchors in today's sea of existence.

Amazing

[suhaibalazzeh · 10/10 · 20 August 2022]

This movie is mesmerizing due to the following reasons :

. David Thewlis because he doesn't just give his greatest performance but because i don't think anyone fits for this role other than him . So Kudos to the casting members for carefully selecting this particular cast , it goes to other actors as well who did a great job in making a plotless story into one of the greatest movies in my opinion .

.The story is madly creative in terms of everything , where a lot of narrative devices are used to make it so . First of all , we don't know anything about the characters which make it amazing because you can always speculate especially when they are so interesting and as the story progresses we still are left in dark in weather we yet know anything about them . Especially Johnny an aimless drifter with no clear intention and obstacle to overcome other than himself and his words that he utters at each scene , like he is possessed by some kind of curse that only works if he wakes up . The only scenes where the movie is sort of quiet when he is asleep . Paying attention to small details like that makes this existential crisis themed journey more interesting . The movie deals mainly with the lengths with the way women must be treated .I've watched the movie numerous times but finally i am able to let it go because its so hypnotizing especially the soundtrack .

Don't Care in the Community...

[Xstal · 8/10 · 20 October 2020]

You can conjure a myriad of possibilities for how each of the characters established here arrived at this destination. Your thoughts will invariably reflect your own social standing, feelings of self worth and political persuasions. An interesting reflection is to imagine where they might be now, how their lives have progressed, or not, as the case may be, as well as considering those in their twenties living similarly today. A visit to almost any high street and their homeless occupants will only compound those considerations.

Thoughtful, powerful performances demonstrate what society, community and government can achieve when it stops caring.

One of The Best Movies...

[eskimosound · 10/10 · 26 July 2021]

This Movie is excellent. Purely excellent, from it's totally improvised script to Thewlis actually going homeless to get into character. I like Mike Leigh, there's always an authenticity you don't get from other Directors like Ken Loach for example. Leigh gets the dialogue right, the timing, the lighting, the sets...all natural, a real talent. It also helps that he employs excellent actors. So this is a harrowing story about Johnny an antihero that you can't help liking. It's excellent just watch it!!

David Thewlis IS the film.

[Lorenzo H. · 6/10 · 27 February 2000]

This movie was well on its way to becoming an unforgettably devastating ‘angry young man' classic. What a shame that it lost its balance half way through and squandered it's potential. What makes this film worth seeing are the incredible verbal histrionics of David Thewlis. He imbues his character with such satiric and cynically scathing wit that he leaves the audience reeling from his machine-gun like existential rants against humanity. Many of the early scenes are funny and mesmerizing thanks to him. The rest of the film unfortunately does not fare as well. It is somewhere shortly after Thewlis' scene with the night watchman that the movie begins to lose its momentum, but it is the last third of the film which truly drags thanks to Director Mike Leigh's unfortunate decision to concentrate too much on the character of the deviant landlord. This character was not only one dimensional and uninteresting but totally unnecessary. His arrival throws the film's mood and energy way off.

David Thewlis gets a 10. The film itself rates an unfortunate 6.

A brilliant film, one of the best

[Barton F · 10/10 · 3 April 1999]

Not only is Naked excellent from an artistic point of view (great acting, witty and intelligent dialogue and script, interesting characters etc.), but it also contains philosophical ideas and arguments which are a challenge to the mind. This movie is among the best films I have ever watched. I recommend it to every person who can appreciate good film making and enjoys intellectual mind-games and debates.

Naked Review

[kobbunb · 6/10 · 8 November 2017]

Just overrated. There is nothing more than irrelevant aphorisms. Actually, there are more. David Thewlis's perform is really good and the scenario is okay but it's not awesome as much as people say it is. I'd rate it maybe more than 7 but my expectation was so high because of the people who talk about this movie.

The omelette stinks

[Ali_John_Catterall · 9/10 · 12 November 2009]

Naked, as implied by its title, is raw, uncompromising cinema, the least comforting manifestation to date of what Mike Leigh calls his "celebration of human experience"; yet there are also moments of tenderness, necessary chinks of compassion spearing the murk. It is also bitingly, appallingly funny.

The film was borne out of Leigh's then preoccupations with the tension between spiritual and material values, some tougher aspects of the relationship between the sexes, and above all, a profound sense of impending, apocalyptic doom. 'Pre-Millennium Tension', Tricky called it in 1996, for an album steeped in paranoia, "psychic pollution" and regret. "Forever - what does that mean?" asks his lover. "It means we'll manage" Tricky grimly retorts. Manage. For Naked's damaged roster of characters, churning out their faded sexual rituals or wearily braced for more verbal and physical trauma, simply 'managing' would be a desirable state to attain.

As Leigh told 'Cineaste' in 1994, "In so far as Naked is about England, the fabric of society is collapsing. People are insecure, there is a sense of disintegration which is, as much as anything else, a legacy of the Tories." The previous decade's boom and bust had left almost every strata of society reeling, with a great many financially or emotionally ill-equipped for the subsequent recession, the period in which the film is set. It is hardly surprising that more people were admitted into psychiatric care during the 1980s than in any previous decade; subsequently released into communities which no longer existed or didn't care about them.

The Poll Tax levy, fleecing the poorest communities while propping up the richest, had also contributed to more numbers of homeless than ever. And Naked's original remit was to have focused on the street, until Leigh decided the subject was too one-dimensional. "Maggie!" bawls twitching Scots straggler Archie (Ewen Bremner) helplessly, in one of the film's subtler allusions. "She's gone, mate" mutters David Thewlis's Johnny, chief pallbearer of the post-Thatcherite malaise. "Those days are over."

However, Naked ought not to be taken chiefly as a state-of-the-nation polemic: the film working out of a broader European tradition of dark, existential allegory. Here, the homeless are those who have been disenfranchised from family, jobs, values - and us, for we can only guess at their stories, as they stumble like medieval cripples through a heightened, Dante-esquire vision of urban London.

The sole emblematic landmark to be glimpsed is the BT Tower looming high above the horizon: more unreachable communication. Appropriately, for a drama exploring rootlessness and displacement, the Naked City (shot in pitiless bleach-bypass to imbue the film with a grainy, Dickensian quality) has collapsed in on itself, having entered a black hole respecting no spatial perimeters. Johnny's sleepless odyssey through the capital's cafes, empty office blocks and bedroom floors will take him from Soho to Shoreditch in minutes.

Almost everybody in Naked is on the move, arriving or departing, to Andrew Dickson's driving, melancholy score. But rarely digging in, lending the film its picaresque quality - a latter-day pilgrim's progress through the Inferno. As befitting a film dealing with the end of days, mythical and Biblical references abound, from 'The Iliad' to the 'Book Of Revelation': Johnny's number of the Beast 'barcode' rant had been prompted by a pamphlet handed to the actor in the street, and its execution - an astonishing verbal juggling act in silhouette - would take around two dozen takes to perfect.

With his head framed against the halo-making rays of a Roman clock, Johnny is both broken Christ and testing devil, crying out to save souls, to reach somebody - anybody - while simultaneously flagellating them for their crucifying ennui. "Do you believe in God?" he's asked at one juncture. "Of course I believe in God," he snaps back. Faith, or lack of it, is not the issue. The question is: what manner of maker has led us to this point?

All performances here are exemplary, including stunning turns from the late, great Katrin Cartlidge who plays the desperate, self-medicated goth Sophie, and Lesley Sharp, Johnny's ex-girlfriend Louise and Naked's moral compass. In Johnny himself (a slice of Lydon, a shave of Lennon and a dose of Mark E Smith) director and actor would create a complex mix of the callous and compassionate, though rarely without a splenetic machine-gun wit: the survivor's apparatus. Only once will a comeback desert him, when "insecurity guard" Brian tells him: "Don't waste your life."

Thewlis had read the equivalent of a small bookshop to prepare for the part, and the ever-present dog-eared paperbacks in Johnny's satchel are like his theories; things to be picked up, appropriated or stolen, then put down. For the autodidact who expresses his sense of self though words, the permanent removal of those books will precipitate his breakdown.

That breakdown was "more or less real," Thewlis told this writer, years later. "That's how I felt - raging. The origin of it is where we experimented with him going inside himself. What I come out with at that point is fairly incoherent and ambiguous, and that's based on this day we had which we used to refer to as the 'Wobbly'. When we were filming the scene it was like 'Okay let's go there now'. I went to a bit of a strange place in my head. It was worth it."

Thewlis still receives plaudits for Johnny, and still receives work off the back of it. Steven Spielberg once requested an audience with him, after Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma spent a night arguing about the film.

"I get this quite a lot" he muses. "People either come up to me and say 'You changed my life', 'That was me', or 'You said everything that I've ever thought'. A few religious nuts in America wrote to me saying 'Remember, God loves you.'"

A truly dark film

[smatysia · 6/10 · 4 February 2019]

A truly dark film. The main character, Johnny, is a seemingly well-educated, yet thoroughly despicable, misogynistic to the point of rape, character who is unsuited for modern life, basically a criminal who would never stoop to honest work. He is contrasted with an upper class character who is even more hateful, and even more cruel to women. There are some very good performances in this movie, but no one is at all likeable. I'm sure that this was the point, but it makes the film more like medicine than entertainment. I don't know whether I would recommend this movie or not.

Ugly and unpleasant in every way

[blott2319-1 · 2/10 · 10 September 2021]

Naked is the story of frustratingly awful people behaving in frustratingly awful ways. David Thewlis plays the main character who goes on long annoying rants about everything in the world, and yet for some reason he finds people willing to sit through his babbling. This is the type of irritating good-for-nothing guy who would probably be more likely to find himself living on the street and begging for loose change on a subway platform in real life. He's made even more reprehensible by the way he uses and abuses women, so I struggled to tolerate him any time he was on screen. It almost felt like the equally offensive character played by Greg Cruttwell was needlessly added to the film so that we'd find someone worse to watch and could possibly think Thewlis was somewhat redeemable by comparison. But since he wasn't rampantly murdering people or something markedly worse, he just felt like a different take on the same guy. There's really no plot to talk about in Naked, so all you're left with is the atrocious characters and the nonsense ramblings that come from their mouths. None of this stuff was all that tolerable (with a couple interesting snippets that stood out from the rest,) so Naked was a complete bust for me as I expected.