\"Have you ever thought, right, but you don’t know, but you may have already lived the happiest day in your whole fuckin\' life, and all you have to look forward to is fuckin\' sickness and purgatory?\"
This line near the beginning of Michael Leigh’s Naked serves as a caveat for what may be one of the most challenging, uncomfortable films I’ve ever experienced. Naked is like having one of those all-night philosophical conversations about the meaning of life... all while being mugged. It wallows in decay, loneliness, and uncertainty, but at the same time there is something so compelling that it keeps you enthralled.
It takes place in England on the eve of the 21st Century, where everything seems uncertain. It is a place where all men are rapists, all women are victims, and everyone inflicts themselves and their needs upon each other in the most horrible ways possible.
We follow our protagonist, a nihilistic, self-destructive misogynist named Johnny, who runs away from Manchester to avoid being beaten up for roughly forcing himself on a woman in an alley. He runs to the house of an ex-girlfriend, sleeps with her roommate, and then takes to the streets, meeting a series of people who are as fucked up and lost in their own way as Johnny is in his. Johnny annoys nearly everyone he comes in contact with as a jobless, over-educated drifter who sneers at people’s lives and seems to take delight in pointing out the worthlessness of what’s important to them.
For all the desperation and pain that Leigh presents in this film, there are tiny little glimmers of hope and hints of redemption. There are those moments when it seems as if Johnny may actually have a soul and be interested in someone else’s well-being. But all we get are glimpses. There are no certainties in this world, and like those late-night philosophical discussions, in the end we are left with more questions than answers.
At this point you’re probably asking, \"If this movie is so miserable and dark, why would I want to watch it? Why does this Watchman guy always talk about these fucked-up movies that make me think too much? Why can’t he talk about something normal, like Buckaroo Banzai?\"
Well, those are good questions. Even though I own this movie and have watched it a few times, Naked is not the type of movie that I could ever imagine watching with another person. It’s a dark film that strikes you in very personal ways, and should only be watched on a dark night. More importantly, even though it is challenging and hard to watch, it is worth seeing. The fact that we are made to care about a character as horrible as Johnny is a testament to the writing of Leigh and the acting ability of David Thewlis. Never have I seen such angst and helplessness captured onscreen in such an honest and gut-wrenching way.
It’s a document of us at our most desperate. It’s life captured right on the edge of destruction, but instead of destruction by a giant meteor or alien invasion, it’s destruction of ourselves by ourselves-- which may be the most terrifying way of all.