Plain Talk and Common Sense (uncommon senses)1987

PLAIN TALK is a complex essay film on the State of the Nation, made for Britain's Channel Four in the year 1986-87. The work involved extensive travel around the United States, and poses an examination of just what America is, or what do we mean when we speak of it. Done in a series of radically different sections which collide with each other in a manner intended to provoke thinking, PLAIN TALK, which was made by an Americans, and intended for American viewers, was indeed broadcast in Britain, but somewhat predictably, not in the USA. Selection for the Whitney Biennale, 1987; shown at Berlin, London, Yamagata, and many other festivals. "No filmmaker could be more in the American grain that Jost, and Uncommon Senses proves to be a stunning experience, a totally original and challenging essay on America." – Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times "Plain Talk and Common Sense is Jost's most successful film yet - a movie of expansive negativity, that putting patriotism under erasure, proposes to represent American and then revels in its inability to do so." – J Hoberman, Village Voice "Funny, sinister and engrossingly watchable, it's a surprising and accessible success for a director notorious for his low-budget minimalism. And despite his complaint that the words have been hijacked by the loony right, it could only have been made by a patriotic American." – John Gill, Time Out, London