Truly Naked (A Film Review) - by Olaitan Sanni

<blockquote>This is my first time writing a movie review, and I decided to start with this particular one because I genuinely learned a lot from it.</blockquote> <blockquote>From now on, I’ll be starting a little series where I review movies I come across, enjoy, and think you should watch too.</blockquote> At first glance, the movie feels like the kind of film that could easily rely on shock value. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt that the film was actually trying to say something deeper about intimacy, sexuality, and the way our environment can shape how we understand both. What stood out to me most was Alec’s relationship with pornography. Growing up around his father’s business has clearly desensitized him to it, even though he seems uncomfortable with the world he has been surrounded by. It’s almost like he has been exposed to the idea of sex without ever really learning what intimacy is supposed to feel like. Then Nina comes into the picture, and she gradually challenges a lot of the assumptions he has built around sex and closeness. Through her, he starts to understand that intimacy is not supposed to be a performance. There are a few scenes that make this clear. One particular scene is uncomfortable because it shows just how distorted Alec’s understanding of sex has become. What makes it work for me is that the discomfort doesn’t feel like it’s there simply to shock the audience. It feels like we’re watching someone confront something he has never really questioned about himself. Another scene that caught my attention was when the actress, Lizzie breaks down after being stared at in public. I found that scene surprisingly human. It shows the difference between being seen as a person and being looked at as an object, and how exhausting that can become when people stop seeing the human being in front of them. I also found the whole “lone wolf” idea interesting. To me, it represents how easily people can retreat into themselves or hide within their own group without ever stopping to question the things they have accepted as normal. Sometimes people become so comfortable inside their own worldview that they never consider what their behavior might look like from the outside. Personally, I appreciated that the film seemed more interested in compassion, confusion, and emotional consequences than simply showing explicit material. It isn’t a perfect film, and I definitely had moments where I wasn’t sure what it was trying to do, but I think that uncertainty is also part of what made it interesting to me. It left me thinking about how differently people can understand intimacy depending on what they were exposed to while growing up. And then there’s the ending. I don’t think the final moments are really meant to give us a neat conclusion where everything suddenly makes sense. Instead, they leave you sitting with everything the characters have experienced and, more importantly, where they are emotionally after it all. For me, the ending felt less concerned with what happens physically and more concerned with what those experiences mean for the people involved. It almost feels like the writer deliberately refuses to close the door completely. Rather than telling us exactly what to think, it leaves some room for us to sit with the discomfort, the confusion, and the possibility of growth. I liked that about it. Ultimately, Truly Naked made me think less about sex itself and more about the way people learn what intimacy is supposed to mean. Sometimes we inherit ideas from our environment without ever questioning them, and sometimes it takes another person to make us realize that what we thought was normal might not actually be healthy or meaningful. It’s definitely not a film I would call flawless, but it’s one that stayed in my head after watching it. <blockquote>Overall, I’d rate the movie an 8/10</blockquote>

Other insights from Olaitan Sanni

Referral Earning

Points-to-Coupons