Last Chants for a Slow Dance

The subject of Jost's excellent movie is the content of the most dirge-like Country and Western lyrics, and what that kind of indulgence leads to. His tale of a dole-queue loser, estranged from wife and kids, living an anachronistic male stud cowboy life and slowly drifting into crime, was apparently suggested by the life of Gary Gilmore. It's particularly scathing about the American macho psyche, but in a novel fashion; the music (all written and performed by Jost himself) comments on the action in a manner that's anything but the fashionably cosy way country is used in films these days. Jost shoots in long takes, relying on imaginative use of natural lighting à la early Godard.