Recipe for fun: Get 'Naked' and watch DVD

I've seen Mike Leigh's "Naked" almost a dozen times and I still can't describe how good it is. It gets better each time I see it, and I learn more each time I see it. \nWhen it debuted in 1993, its reception was, to put it mildly, mixed. Critics didn't dispute that it was a valuable film, but some viewed its protagonist, Johnny, as misogynistic, rambling and over-dramatic. To be fair, Johnny does possess a certain violent discontent with the world, which seems to manifest itself in his careless treatment of women. \nIn the commentary track accompanying the recent Criterion release, Mike Leigh intones his intention wasn't to shock audiences with Johnny's behavior, which includes more than one sadistic sexual encounter, but rather to fully and intricately observe one man and the complexity of his life. In my humble opinion, he succeeded in making one of the best films of the 90's, if not of all time. \nThankfully, the good people of Criterion have selected "Naked" as one of this year's releases. For anyone not familiar with The Criterion Collection, get acquainted quickly, even you don't know your favorite film as well as they do. Their mission is to enhance and expand upon the world's best films and they make the DVD experience what it should be. \nFor "Naked," they put together a commentary track that includes director Mike Leigh, actor David Thewlis (Johnny) and the sadly deceased actress Katrin Cartlidge, who portrays one of the film's main characters. This is somewhat impressive being that the track was recorded in 1994, before DVDs were the ancillary phenomenon they are now. Also included is an interview with filmmaker Neil LaBute, and an episode from a BBC series called "The Conversation," where author Will Self talks extensively with Leigh about his body of work.\nBut the most enjoyable special feature is a 20-minute short titled "The Short and Curlies," a hilarious film Leigh made in the late eighties. The short marked his first collaboration with David Thewlis, who plays a wisecracking customer at a local drugstore, where he just happens to be in love with the shop girl.\nThewlis is nothing short of magnificent in "Naked," for which he won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. His performance is all the more remarkable when you consider he improvised almost all his lines in special pre-production sessions with Leigh. As Leigh put it in the commentary, his films are "whittled down" from initial improvisations with his actors, whose words are then transcribed and made into a script. For "Naked," Leigh worked painstakingly and from the inside out; the result was his masterpiece.