Naked (1993) dir. Mike Leigh
Starring: David Thewlis, Lesley Sharp, Gina McKee

**1/2

Guest review by Blair Stewart

A international breakthrough for Mike Leigh, David Thewlis and British kitchen-sink drama, "Naked" took home the Best Director and Best Actor Prizes at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival with a bleak journey into London's lower-class depths.

Johnny (David Thewlis) is an embittered creation that steps out of the pages of a Malcolm Lowry screed as we join his stifling presence in post-Thatcher Britain. Stealing a car after drunk alley sex becomes a rape, Johnny flees Manchester for the big city to reunite with his ex, Louise (Lesley Sharp). After spurring Louise and seducing her skid row roommate Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge), Johnny stalks the back streets with a prophecy of doom and seeks release through pleasure and/or pain. He passes through encounters with various characters living on the fringe while the depraved landlord of Louise's flat lurks in the peripheral of the story.

Sharp witted and depressive, an idealist on a nihilistic jag, Johnny is the most memorable character either Thewlis or Leigh have been involved in during their careers. Leigh has even said it’s the great tragedy of Thewlis's career that he hasn't found a role on par with "Naked".

Suffering from headaches and mood swings, Johnny makes acquaintances with a lost Tourettic drifter played with relish by a young Ewen Bremner and a night-watchman Brian (Peter Wight) loafing through an steel and glass complex containing 'empty space'. Enjoy the following exchange between Johnny and Brian:

Johnny: And what is it what goes on in this post-modern gas chamber?
Brian: Nothing. It's empty.
Johnny: So what is it you guard, then?
Brian: Space.
Johnny: You're guarding space? That's stupid, isn't it? Because someone could break in there and steal all the fuckin' space and you wouldn't know it's gone, would you?
Brian: Good point.

Johnny wanders off in pursuit of various women for comfort before the skies darken, and after searching for it, is beaten up twice by toughs. Meanwhile Jeremy the landlord skulks into Louise's flat and ruthlessly exploits Sophie before many of the characters come crashing back home.

Although made by a former theatre/TV director and having a protagonist spot-on for an existential novella which might have hindered it in other hands, "Naked’s” success on the screen is due to the confidence of the actors’ time spent on improvisation and rehearsal before filming. Also benefiting the film is Dick Pope's lighting, capturing the zombified pale faces of Londoners in winter and the grey concrete of their uncompromising city. And of course, as mentioned, David Thewlis is excellent as that loud cock-eyed man you have likely avoided looking at on the subway while he's stared intensely at you.

I hadn't seen "Naked" in ten years, which I had loved on my first viewing, but after watching it again certain issues, arise. First, Jeremy is a lousy antagonist whose bouffant hair and tantrums I interpreted as commentary about the class disparity between his acceptable upper-class sadism and Johnny's invisible working-class instability. In hindsight Jeremy doesn’t come across so much as a privileged, systemic monster, but as an unruly, spoild child.

Another problem is the overwrought nature of the characters, the actors and script playing up the emptiness of their lives, the armageddon of a generation saying "fuck it" and the creators trying too hard to capture that voice. There is nothing wrong with a film engaging the company of unpleasant humans, but after hearing many of Johnny's rants the movie often slips from truth into pretension.

These issues aside, "Naked" is worth seeing for the early 90's urban decay, the chemistry between the actors and the push it gave Mike Leigh towards the likes of the great "Topsy-Turvy" and "Secrets and Lies". And if you would like to spend the night with one of God's angry children, give Travis Bickle a pass and eavesdrop on this lone British madman.

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) dir. Mike Leigh
Starring: Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman, Samuel Roukin

***1/2

Mike Leigh’s talents are in top form in this simple yet complex story of a gal who is so happy it causes such discomfort in people.

Poppy is a classic Mike Leigh lead character, a working class British gal, independent yet confident in herself, a drummer who marches to her own beat. We meet her riding her bike around town. She parks and locks up the bike to a fence, but when she returns, it's stolen. Poppy laughs it off with a smile and says to herself under her breath, "we never got to say goodbye." Leigh proceeds to follow Poppy around through her everyday normal life - she works as a kindergarten teacher, she shops, she goes clubbing with her girlfriends etc etc. At times, not matter what the situation Poppy never relinquishes her smile.

Her patience is tested when she decides to take driving lessons to finally learn how to drive. Her instructor is the exact opposite to her - a timebomb of nervous insecurity and pent up anger. From the get go Poppy pushes his buttons and takes the piss out of everything he says and does. There's also Poppy's sisters who continually squabble with familiar sibling rivalry. Lingering resentment rears its head as Poppy’s carefree attitude only emphasizes the stresses on everyone else's lives.

Throughout the first act Poppy’s is so over-the-top jovial her laughter and inability to carry on a conversation without giggling detours of humour was like a frustrating itch on my back I couldn't scratch. At times she was excruciatingly annoying, and so I wondered if I was perhaps too cynical to enjoy the character. But I think this was by Leigh's design, because as the film moves along, although we never see dark corners corners of her past, her saintliness has an edge.

Throughout the film we wait for Poppy’s armour of effervescence to crack. While a dark side is (rightfully) never revealed, Leigh sets up a number of tense situations which shows her lack of maturity. Poppy’s attempt to make conversation with a schizophrenic homeless man had me grinding me teeth and gripping my chair with fear. In this case, her optimism crosses over into naive stupidity. Poppy’s confrontation with her sister reveals the negative influence of her happiness with others around her. And the climax comes in the form in a fantastic cathartic shouting match from Scott the driving instructor, which finally uncorks his true feelings - many of which represent the collective thoughts of the audience.

A number of stand alone scenes, which don’t necessarily add to Poppy’s character add sparkling real world texture to the scenery. Poppy’s Flamenco teacher provides a couple of scenes of comic magic, and Poppy even manages to make a first date, including the nightcap sexual encounter, so effortlessly comfortable.

One of the hallmarks of Leigh’s style is his semi-improvisational methods of storytelling. Leigh’s been known to spend months workshopping with his actors to move a story from a sketches of characters to a full script. The magic of realism takes work, and simply having actors riff off the cuff while the camera’s rolling doesn’t constitute realism. Jonathan Demme’s “Rachel Getting Married” is an example of where improvised and seemingly ‘realistically’ filmed scenes can feel force fed and ironically inauthentic.

"Happy-Go-Lucky"  feels completely natural and realistic because Leigh makes the rehearsed seem unrehearsed and thus unobtrusive and invisible.  Enjoy.