Naked

While there’s a fair bit of nudity in this stunning Mike Leigh movie, the Naked of the title has much more to do with the soul-bearing performances of the cast than anything else. It’s the story of a Johnny (David Thewlis), a motor-mouth madman from Manchester who flees to London to escape a beating from the family of a girl he forced himself on. He hooks up with an ex-girlfriend (Leslie Sharp) but it’s soon obvious that Johnny isn’t looking for a reconciliation. He’s looking for anarchy — the kind of physical, emotional and spiritual anarchy he needs to help him feel there’s something more to life than just killing time until you die. The devastation he leaves in his wake doesn’t matter.