Mike Leigh’s 1993 film Naked is one of the more modern films in the Criterion 40 collection. And also one of the least approachable. The film is darkly bleak, bitingly funny, and brimming with insufferable characters. But for all its obfuscated tones, Mike Leigh has made a film that is resonating. Even if it resonates for the wrong reasons.

Six films into The Criterion 40, a pattern has started to emerge. Many of these films deal with characters who are both arrogant and massively insecure. Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 follows a brilliant filmmaker who is crippled by his desire to make something better than his previous works. All That Jazz follows an artist at the end of his life. A life in which he’s worked himself to death and must come to terms with his failures and mortality. Naked may not follow an artist. But it does follow a man whose only successes in life seem to come in spite of himself.

Exist Out Of Spite

David Thewlis plays Johnny, the lead character in Naked. He is a sexually promiscuous, morally flexible, conspiracy theory obsessed English man who gets by in life through thievery and charm. He begins the film having rough sex with a woman in an alley. An encounter that soon turns too violent for her liking, forcing him off of her, only for him to steal a car and find refuge in the closest scorned lover he can find.

Johnny is one of the most unpleasant lead characters in all of cinema. But he has a certain charm that propels the film and mystifies the characters around him. He spends most of the movie seducing women or charming men with his large vocabulary until they eventually tire of his antics and send him packing. Outside of his tough veneer and debonair demeanor, we can see the true Johnny. The Johnny that he himself sees. A loser who floats through life causing havoc everywhere he goes.

The Yuppie & The Bum

Aside from Johnny, the film follows Greg Cruttwell as Jeremy. Jeremy is the perfect juxtaposition to Johnny while also being more or less the same person. Jeremy is wealthy, respected, and by all accounts hard working. Adjectives that would never be used to describe Johnny. But aside from their outward appearances, each man shares the same flaw. A habit of using women and a lack of a moral compass.

Jeremy is clearly the villain of the film, but it’s interesting how Johnny is just as, if not more insufferable than Jeremy. Jeremy is more violent towards his sexual partners than Johnny, but only slightly so. And Johnny is less controlling over his partners but only because he holds no real power. The film creates these two characters, two sides of the same coin. Both men feel entitled to act in any way they please. But only one who is actually powerful enough to do so.

The End Of The World

A major theme of Naked, and one that Johnny with spout to anyone in listening distance, is the end of the world. A world ending that will be brought on by the new millennium. Jonny is a wealth of knowledge on useless information. The information he uses to drive home a point no one cares to listen to.

It’s impossible not to look at this film through a 2025 lens. In a world full of conspiracy theories and misinformation, we can see Johnny using the same tactics as any flat-earther and anti-vaxxer. They have all the information and have done all the research, but it’s meaningless data from easily manipulated sources. The minute Johnny begins citing Nostradamus as proof that the world will end, most of the people he’s interacting with just tune out. They can’t argue their point, because Johnny is making a point based on data that only he knows and has studied. He puts his would-be disciples in an impossible situation where only he can be right. And it’s painful for everyone unlucky to come in contact with him.

British Comedy

Naked catapulted both director Mike Leigh and star David Thewlis’s career. And it’s easy to see why. The film is provocative and deep all while feeling contained and claustrophobic. The character of Johnny is one that is so tough to master but Thewlis nails this performance. We instantly get that Johnny is an awful character, yet we fully see the appeal he has to every unlucky patron in the film.

We all have a friend or know someone like Johnny. A person, usually a man, who is too smart and charismatic for their own good. They kind of drift through life, through work and school and relationships. Never able to excel but never falling too far behind. They succeed, however merely, in spite of themselves. That is the Johnny character to a tee. As soon as he’s worn out his welcome in a warm bed with an attractive woman, he’s only a quippy joke and charming banter away from the next. Until he inevitably wears out his welcome again and is on to the next con.

Limping From One Problem To Another

Through all of Johnnys escapades and groan-inducing rants, we see the brief cracks in his demeanor. Johnny is slowly realizing he can’t keep up this life and despite his massive ego, incredible intelligence, and persuasive charm, deep down he’s riddled with insecurity.

Gus Van Sant’s 1997 film Good Will Hunting pulls the same narrative. Albeit in a much happier audience-friendly tone. Where Matt Damon’s Will Hunting gets a redemption arc and a happy ending, Johnny ends the film just as he began it. There is no redemption for Johnny. He spends the entire film causing problems until they finally catch up to him and he ends up on the wrong end of a massive beating. Rather than learn and receive the unearned grace extended to him, Johnny reverts to his criminal ways and literally limps away. Leaving one problem in search of another.

Naked

Johnny is an unlikeable hero, but it’s the juxtaposition between Johnny and Jeremy that I find most fascinating in this film. The two share many of the same flaws, but one character gets away with it while the other suffers. Johnny is insufferable and wears out his welcome, but so is Jeremy. Only no one dares to challenge him because of the power and stature he holds.

It’s interesting watching this film in 2025 after the reckoning of Me Too and films like Blink Twice. Naked may not have been trying to out evil men at the time, but what it did is highlight how much easier it is for a guy with a nice suit and money in his pocket to get away with his abhorrent behavior. Johnny’s acts eventually catch up with him, but Jeremy leaves with just as much power as he began. Johnnys story is sad, but it’s the women in this film who bear the brunt of the pain. Pain from Johnny and from Jeremy. But only one of these men, the one with the least amount of money, gets their comeuppance.