Herman U.S.A.

I really enjoyed this movie. While I do enjoy action and science fiction films, it's great to not see anything blown up for a change. I'm from a nearby state and the characters felt real to me. I remember the newspaper stories about the Herman bachelor festival and it was fun seeing a movie about it. In the fictionalized version several romances develop after the bifg weekend and most end happily. I enjoyed seeing small town people treated as intelligent and the mostly gentle humor. It's a good feel good movie; I'd like to get it on tape or DVD some time.

Given that this film was not picked up by a distributer for release soon after its completion, I was pleasantly surprised at its overall quality. It is a simplistic story but holds your attention very well. The first half is very funny and then shifts into a heartwarming tug at your heartstrings. General comments that I heard upon leaving the theater were very positive. Striking aerial and land based farmland scenery.

Most people that have seen this movie (which sure doesn't say a lot) are from somewhere in Minnesota. Its not a very well known movie. My grandma grew up in New Germany, MN. Her husband grew up in Waconia, as I have, and they know people who are in the movie.. Heck they are probably distantly related to half of them. So its easy for people from.. lets just say Camden, Waconia, or Laketown, or even Hassen Township to like this movie because they know people and think its hilarious that they are in the movie. But if you aren't from around here, you might not like the movie as much. That's just my view on this.

But, I thought it was hilarious, because my old bus driver, Goodie was in the movie.. I will never think of him the same way again!!

The story of the bride fair is an amusing and engaging one, and it is to the filmmaker's credit that he sets out to portray rural Minnesotans with the same respect ordinarily reserved for Coast-dwellers. It is weird, though, to find an independent movie, the brainchild of a single person, that is as unambitious and cliché-ridden as a committee-brewed Hollywood potboiler.

The portrait of rural people is intended to be affectionate, I think, but these characters don't ring true to me--I have had quite a few meals in small-town diners, but never overheard a debate on the merits of different nineteenth-century English novelists. One might suggest that writer/director Semans has no more experience with rural culture than the Coen brothers, and considerably less satiric verve.

This is a pleasant enough movie about a small town full of unmarried guys. They advertise to encourage single girls to visit the town but are overwhelmed by the number who turn up. The movie contains some interesting character studies, but to the average movie goer, it probably paints a poor picture of country folk, especially the men. The is a warts and all look at the town, especially the guys. They seem to be a sorry lot even when the bus loads of women arrive. There is some irony depicted and perhaps we should all look closer at the things we have before looking elsewhere.