Naked

[1993. Directed by Mike Leigh. Cast: David Thewlis, Leslie Sharp, Katrin Cartlidge. Fine Line/New Line Video. 126 mins.]

Johnny's (David Thewlis) visit to the big time is as close to a modern nightmare as could be imagined. Naked's modern-day city dwellers are a squalor of rootless wanderers seeking to connect briefly with another soul while trying desperately to make up for the vacant hole In the center of their lives.

But also chalk this film up as a convincing argument for the cliché's truth that a little education is a dangerous thing. In Johnny's case, it's a very dangerous thing. He's a conscienceless con-artlst who has lost interest in his trade and now merely practices his craft for the self -reflexve pain the exercise provides.

When we first meet him, he's basically raping his date, and shortly afterward, stealing a car to flee Manchester. His vague destination is London where he plans to crash his ex-girlfriend, Louise's (Leslie Sharp) pad, where he'll hole up until a better prospect comes along. Meeting Louise's strung-out punkster roommate, Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge), Johnny seduces her for lack of anything else to do until Louise comes home from work. And this is just the beginning.

Between Louise and Sophie, a drunk Scot couple whose unhappiness is only outstripped by their mutual incomprehensibility, a lonely night watchman whose rounds include a voyeur's delight, and a couple of equally lonely women whom he terrorizes into sex, there's not a lot more going on during Johnny's tour of the big city. Street smart, with a caustic sense of humor that keeps balancing his misogyny with n pseudo-intellectual's wonder about life and death, Johnny scoffs at everything and everyone with whom he comes into contact. Indeed, one of the most interest ing aspects of this peculiarly affecting film is the sheer unnerving ambivalence he has for one and all.

Keeping the center of Naked intact is Thewlis' brilliant characterization of a small-time loser whose native intelligence barely keeps his nihilistic disgust with society and himself at bay. By turns both spiteful and poetic, Johnny is a cut-rate Hamlet whose attempt to turn himself into something grander is undercut by his inability to stomach his own excesses.

Nor does director Mike Leigh cut his audience a break. Constantly roving the back streets of London in search of Johnny's next odd encounter, Leigh's screenplay keeps our expectations balance through the nuances that continually crop up in the film's plot. Each incidental character exists in an oddly disjointed time and space where humane encounters are random events and enlightenment is equally unlikely. By the time Johnny has gotten his measure of cinema comeuppance, Leigh has firmly taken his audience in hand.

Alternately frightening and fascinating, Naked convincingly paints a portrait of a 20th century urban hell where angels are devils - and vice-versa- but only with the most unexpected turns of fortune. Master of ceremonies, Johnny, is one of the most interesting villains in recent memory. Distinctly distasteful, but also charming In a smarmy fashion, his endless rounds of seduction and debauchery lead him to yet a more unfathomable depth than where he has been before.

As such, the most pressing question Naked asks is: how low will Johnny go this time? Director Leigh forcefully reminds us: Who needs a sequel?