Naked (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

The brilliant and controversial Naked, from director Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy), stars David Thewlis (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) as Johnny, a charming and eloquent but relentlessly vicious drifter. Rejecting anyone who might care for him, the volcanic Johnny hurls himself through a nocturnal odyssey around London, colliding with a succession of other desperate and dispossessed people, and scorching everyone in his path. With a virtuoso script and raw performances from Thewlis and costars Katrin Cartlidge (Before the Rain) and Lesley Sharp (The Full Monty), Leigh’s picture of England’s underbelly is an amalgam of black comedy and doomsday prophecy that took the best director and best actor prizes at the 1993 Cannes International Film Festival.