Naked · reception & legacy
1993 · Mike Leigh
How Naked has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
It stormed Cannes in 1993 but was immediately dogged by accusations of misogyny that split critics down the middle; three decades on it's settled in as Mike Leigh's masterpiece, with the debate now folded into its legend rather than held against it.
What's debated
The fight that never ends: is the film misogynist, or a film *about* misogyny — and can you love Johnny's brilliance without excusing him?
Its footprint
Johnny's apocalyptic pub-philosopher rants — barcodes, the Book of Revelation, the end of the world — are among the most-quoted monologues in 90s cinema, endlessly clipped and transcribed by fans who treat him as the patron saint of articulate despair.
Where it stands
A Criterion-anointed pillar of British miserabilism and a Letterboxd heavy-hitter, routinely invoked as home to one of the great screen performances of the decade.