Nobody Has A Future: Mike Leigh’s Naked
Matthew Shadbolt Matthew Shadbolt

Nobody Has A Future: Mike Leigh’s Naked

Bleak. Desperate. Violent. Acerbic. Mike Leigh’s Naked is as relevant in Post-Brexit Britain as it was almost thirty years ago upon release. It explores themes of misogyny, class, conspiracy and religion, and like most of Leigh’s films, refuses to resolve anything, leaving us to think about which side of history we want to be on. Filmed at the height of post-Thatcherite Conservatism, and in a particularly grim time for the country economically, culturally and with waning influence in the world, Naked could just as easily have been released this year to the same effect.

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“On a clear day you can see the class struggle from here”: Mike Leigh’s Career Girls
Matthew Shadbolt Matthew Shadbolt

“On a clear day you can see the class struggle from here”: Mike Leigh’s Career Girls

Following the success of the apocalyptic Naked (1993) and the harrowing Secrets & Lies (1996), at the end of the nineties Mike Leigh turned to a smaller, more intimate subject, the nostalgia for youth. Leigh’s been vocal about his motivation for Career Girls, explaining that he was interested in the large life differences in what happens to us between ages 20-30.

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