Naked

In the 1990s, Mike Leigh had the best decade ever. Although differing in their portrayal of English life and the varying classes, Leigh’s films possess a sophistication of theme and dialogue that harkens back to the experimentation of the 1970s. Naked (1993) begins appropriately dirty enough, as a handheld camera scurries through the Manchester dark and settles upon a couple having sex in the shadows, until we realize that the man must flee for London. Giving one of the best performances of the decade, David Thewlis plays the man, Johnny, a restless bohemian who is alternatively a psycho and a savant.

He settles upon a former girlfriend’s house, Louise (Leslie Sharp), for his refuge, and there he meets Louise’s roommate, Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge), a woman who is somehow more damaged and lost than he. Their struggle for intimacy and passion in their sex is heart-breaking. Take pure nihilism and multiply it by three. It’s simply flesh pounding against flesh, when Sophie in particular needs it to be so much more. Indeed, Sophie becomes the apotheosis of sorrow, confusion, and uncontrolled devotion to Johnny, even though he refuses to surrender himself in this way to any other person.

Though the film could settle into a tragi-comedy detailing Johnny’s misfortune in sleeping with Sophie while trying to woo back Louise, Leigh has a different story to tell. Johnny wanders the streets of London, conversing with a night watchman about the Holy Bible and the coming apocalypse, exposes and threatens to unravel a waitress’s insecurities after her kindness to him, and suffers several beatings. Through it all, Leigh’s characters struggle to survive with society, but, except for Louise, all of them recoil and flee from the potentiality of change and hope. The closing tracking shot is inevitable, yet still excels in eliciting a pained silence as life continues as it must.

Though we may revel in the escape that Louise has chosen for herself, there are so many characters we have been exposed to in this film who are adrift and in despair that the film maintains its bleak worldview even as it demonstrates a possibility of light that is there, if the characters only commit themselves.

While Naked is full of degradation and callousness, it is nonetheless a masterpiece of contemporary cinema that is endlessly vital and alive.

Naked: 10/10