 |  | 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.
August 3, 2008this 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.
May 18, 2008 | | Leigh veered off into thief, wife, lover, cook country and shouldna have | |
This is an unfortunate film, actually. Although, mostly interesting it begins to grate upon one midway through. Mike Leigh's strengths are his ability to demonstrate the 'lives' of working class britons with heaps of wit, charm, cleverness and bits of rather heavy-handed (tho not quite sappy) emotionalism. He's best when he keeps it light overall whilst making one or two quite heavy points. The problem with Naked is that it is all about heavy with very little light. In addition, Mr. Leigh tries but fails to lade his tale with deep metaphorical meaning in the way that the rather hideously bad film The Thief, Cook, Wife and Lover did although without the fantasmagorical posturing, pretension, piffle and puck. In a nutshell this is the tale of a working class Mancunian who is either insane or being driven insane by the workings of his mind. His problem is that he is too smart for his class (that's breeding, mind), which shows in his glib verbosity and abstruse philosophical riffs which he bundles up in clever entendre and verbal puns. The problem is that he is speaking university to working class yobs and yobettes which causes him to be alienating and alienated to those he interacts with, rather assaults. His failure, or inability to connect on a purely personal, human level further damaging his diseased mind which causes him to act out more and so on. Mr. Leigh attempted to stir in a few different ingredients into his metaphorical stew but he fails to, for instance, demonstrate that the working class protagonist's angry, abusive manner is equivalent to the posh anti-heroe's equally angry abusive behaviour with the difference being only that one can afford to 'pay' for his rapine behaviour while the other must merely take his rapes for free. I'm uncertain why Mr. Leigh brought that psycho-social angle into the story because he had enough semi-meaningless flux to deal with in the story as it is. There are other random bits of disconnectedness that I shan't bother to comment upon. To sum up, this is an interesting but unentertaining, non-thought-provoking movie that is worth watching if you are a big fan of Leigh's movies.
March 18, 2008 | | I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS POSSIBLE TO MAKE A MOVIE THIS BAD | |
The fact that this movie snatched worthwhile film festival awards from any other movies is shocking and ridiculous. ANY other film is better than this! It has all of the worst traits of other movies that I used to think were bad, but now, in comparison to "Naked," I am realizing were actually good. These sour traits are: rambling, meaningless, nonsensical, "existential," blathering BS; disjointed scenes and lack of a story; characters that the audience has NO reason to like or continue watching for ANY reason; violent, misogynistic, nasty scenes that have no explanation nor reason to be included; a boring, annoying, worthless schmuck for a lead who should just be killed off to put viewers out of their misery; but most importantly, lack of entertainment. Films are supposed to be entertaining, moving, provocative, interesting, humorous -- whatever the genre, a movie must have a REASON to be watched, a motivation for the viewer. "Naked" has none. The only reason I watched it is because I was told to study the acting technique for a film that I am working on, and believe me, it is NOT a film that holds your attention. After an hour and a half of pure agony, I fast-forwarded through the rest, and sure enough, nothing really happened. I'm so annoyed that I bought this! (Amazon is great, though.)
February 3, 2008| | | 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.
September 2, 2007More reviews at Amazon.com ...
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