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Mike Leigh's Naked is a Searing Film…
Directly commanding Our Attention with its Opening Scene Then Holding us
With No chance of Letting go for the next Two Hours, Johnny: A Drifter Played
amazingly By David Thewlis -Steals a Car After Raping a Woman In Manchester
and Heads Down to London … Looking to Hook up with a Former Girlfriend
… Whose Existence is nearly As Dismal As his… Just to Describe
The Plot of the film Would be To Reduce it I Think… The Power of the
Movie Is Equally In Thewlis' Performance and Leigh's Direction … The
Glaring Images of A Desolate Figure Drifting Through Unwelcoming Nighttime
London are Among the best Captured Bye Leigh or anyone else…. Blues
And Blacks.. Barely glowing .. An atmosphere Of Rage During Johnny's Encounter
With a frantic Addict… And his conversation with a Night Watchman Covering
Everything from the existence of God.. to Life and Death and Back Again
is Amazing Even more for the fact That This Like All Leigh Films were Improvised
During their Inception .. Leigh and his actors Work From Scratch to Devise
a Script Once the film's financing is Secured -The Character of Johnny is
amazingly Menacing in his Demeanor -His harmful words So Well Chosen ..
We Wonder What's happened to him to make him this way… He's certainly
not a hero …. His pain is definitely alienating … to the viewer
yet it draws them in at the same time … That is the Genius of the Film
and Leigh As well.. There Are Obviously a Lot of Works of Art about alienation
.. And Inhumanity But Few succeed to create an atmosphere Of nihilism With
as much strength as this one …. The almost Painterly Images of Some
Distant And Knowing Self Annihilation Are Unforgettable .. The Pain in the
peoples faces The Dislike Of Everything … and the Unhappiness which
is no doubt Leigh's Reaction to Thatcher … out of pain has come one
of Leigh's best films and one of the most relevant of All recent pictures…
It isn't Hard to Sit back and Hate things And Lash out at the world with
anger.. But Leigh Doesn't Lie-For A Person Like Johnny life doesn't Get
any better And isn't Going to , The Film is Released On DVD (At Last) Bye
Criterion A Beautiful Transfer with Excellent extra features, it is Good
to See this movie On disc.. Hopefully it Will find the wider Range of Viewers
that it deserves. |
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