Naked is a 1993 British black comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh and starring David Thewlis
as Johnny, a motor-mouthed intellectual and conspiracy theorist.
Critically acclaimed, the film won a number of awards, including best
director and best actor at Cannes.
Naked marked a new career high for Leigh as a director and made the then-unknown Thewlis an internationally recognized star.
After a rough sexual encounter with a married woman in a Manchester alley becomes a rape, Johnny Fletcher steals a car and flees for Dalston, a "scrawny, unpretentious area" in the east of London.
He seeks refuge with his former girlfriend, fellow Mancunian Louise.
Louise is not happy to see her ex. She works as a file clerk and shares a
rental house with two flatmates, Sophie a young party girl, and primary
tenant Sandra, a nurse who's away on holiday.
Johnny immediately seduces Sophie, but soon tires of her and embarks
on an extended odyssey among the destitute and despairing of London.
During his encounters, Johnny expounds his world-view at long and
lyrical length to anyone who will listen, whether Archie, a Scottish boy
yelling "Maggie!" at the top of his voice he comes across in Brewer Street,
or Brian, a security guard planning for his future amidst acres of
empty space, whom Johnny marks down as having, "the most tedious job in
England".
After pursuing and then rejecting a drunken woman, Johnny is tossed
out of a sublet by a young cafe worker he's followed home. He hitches a
ride with a man who's hanging posters around town. The poster man,
exasperated by Johnny's non-stop haranguing, kicks him several times,
driving off with Johnny's only possession, a duffel bag with his clothes
and books. Johnny wanders the streets and, with no provocation, is
severely beaten by thugs.
He manages to return to Louise's home, where Jeremy (aka Sebastian), a pathological sexual predator
and Sandra's landlord, who has let himself in. Sophie is desperate to
get Jeremy out of the house after a sexual encounter with him had turned
into rape. She and Louise try to keep Johnny quiet but Jeremy awakens
to find Johnny, injured and having a fit.
Sandra returns from her trip to Zimbabwe
and tends to Johnny. Louise rids the house of Jeremy. She and Johnny
have a reconciliation. Feeling desolate and rejected, Sophie flees the
house with her few possessions. Louise leaves for work, promising to
return and go back to Manchester with Johnny. But Johnny steals cash
that Sebastian had left in the house and hobbles out into the streets.
