Preceded by short: Democracy in America: Or, Everyone Is Welcome (Dan Boord, Greg Durbin, U.S., 1986): Karl Rossman, the protagonist of Kafka's America, meets Alexis de Toqueville, the eighteenth-century author of Democracy in America. One witnesses the end of the Oklahoma oil boom, the other the end of interest in history. (14 mins, Color, 3/4" Video, From the artist) ---------------------------------------Essentially a patchwork of quotations ranging from the Whitmanesque sublime to the Nixonite ridiculous, Plain Talk gets right to the heart of Americana, both physically (a round-about road movie with "no particular place to go") and ideologically (what Americans think of themselves and what they think other people think). As usual the soundtrack plays a specially complex role and enriches the ironic texture of the images, which are conceived as a series of juxtaposed "blocks" addressing a series of subjects. Caustic and polemical as ever, this is quintessential Jon Jost for the connoisseurs. How's that for plain talk & common sense?-Don Ranvaud