Naked (dir. Mike Leigh, 1993)
May or may not flesh this out with an actual review later, but wanted to note that for me this is revisiting a film I first saw as a young 'un – I guess this helped draw some distinctions for me, perhaps. That might sound really extreme, but it's not intended that way; just that visceral realism is sometimes harder to digest than a splatter film with viscera all over the place. The overall atmosphere of the film and disposition of the character is not unlike certain passages/voices in late 1990s-era P.S.; fairly bogged down with paranoia and depression, not to mention intertwining such feelings with hate, but ultimately human and able to process human feeling in the full spectrum. Apologetic tone aside, I read an interview with Mr. Stab Electronics that Gaspar Noe's I Stand Alone was "power electronics in film form," or something like that. I'd say the same of Mike Leigh's Naked – rather than comparing it to any other movies, it seems to have much in common with late '80's-early '90's Whitehouse. I keep hearing the terms "black comedy" to describe both, anyway; and to be frank the character of Johnny reminds me of a certain bearded, trenchcoated fellow in early live photos. For years, I'd mistaken David Thewlis in this movie for Jared Harris in Happiness. Picture that when you watch this movie.
