Naked - Criterion Collection | Alison Steadman, Sylvestra Le Touzel

Naked - Criterion Collection | Alison Steadman, Sylvestra Le Touzel | You will be in for a "shell-shock" of a ride.

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Naked - Criterion ...

	Naked - Criterion Collection Alison Steadman, Sylvestra Le Touzel Criterion, 2005 average customer review:based on 63 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

One of the essential films of the 1990s, Mike Leigh's brilliant and controversial "Naked" stars David Thewlis as Johnny, a charming, eloquent, and relentlessly vicious drifter in London. Rejecting all those who would care for him, the volcanic Johnny hurls himself into a nocturnal odyssey through the city, colliding with a succession of the desperate and the dispossessed and scorching everyone in his path. With a virtuoso script and raw performances by Thewlis and costars Katrin Cartlidge and Lesley Sharp, Leigh's panorama of England's crumbling underbelly is a showcase of black comedy and doomsday prophecy, and was the winner of the best director and actor prizes at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

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This movie will mess with your head

The opening scene really dictates the mood for the entire film. It shows the main character, Johnny(David Thewis), in a dark alley raping a woman. The director, Mike Leigh, simultaneously is forcing himself upon you the viewer. He smacks you in the face with this brutality and leaves you dazed and waiting for him to finish you off.
But he leaves you hanging. The film takes a different turn as he embraces you with an intelligent, virtuoso script. I kept waiting for more pieces of extreme violence and brutality, and although there is some, it's really all about the thought-provoking dialogue.
There are moments where you'll forget about Johnny's violent nature. He is a drifter, but he is also intelligent and charming. His lifestyle seemed to be a conscious choice, an act of rebelling against the confines of acceptable human patterns and ordinary tendencies.
To a certain degree, this main character reminded me of Alex from Clockwork Orange. He clamors through his life with a raw sort of bravado and inkling for disaster while also being sort of victimized by his own frenzied manner.
Naked is a intimate look at human nature. It's filled with some bleak outlooks on life, doomsday prophecies, dark humor, and scorching emotional surges. Man, it will wipe you out.
Thewis' performance really stands out in this riveting journey. He was recognized at the Cannes Film Festival with a best actor award, and Leigh accepted one for best director as well. A movie not to be missed.

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You will be in for a "shell-shock" of a ride.

"What's it like being you?"- A classic line if ever there was one.

You have probably never seen a movie quite like Naked. It begins with a random rape scene and it ends..., well let's just say it doesn't so much end, as the movie finishes.

Naked gives you a tour of the dark underbelly of London as seen through the eyes of Johnny, an anti-hero if there ever was one. An intellectual who is on the run from.., life? the law? his own demons? You can't really say.

The dialogue is fascinating, the scenes bleak as you view the desolation and wasteland of both London and the characters lives.

It all takes place over the course of a day or two, and when I was finished watching it, I sat with my mouth agape for several minutes as my brain continued to process what I had just seen.

Kudos to Mike Leigh for making a film where the characters truly dominate, and where you really, really, really need to pay attention to understand what appears to be going on.

Highly Recommended.

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a brilliant film

this is definitely my favorite mike leigh movie of all. david thewlis is brilliant as the misanthropic main character and his wanderings through the city at night and myriad quotable diatribes are engaging and really draw you into the story. the people he meets along the way are engaging and unique. it's definitely not for those who want to watch the typical hollywood fare with happy endings and blindly optimistic main characters. it is a very thought provoking movie with interesting characters and i would recommend seeing it even if you are not familiar with the other films of leigh.

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