Herzog reunites with Bruno S. The film begins with S. being released from jail after some public drunkenness. After some hard times involving his girlfriend's pimps, he and she (Eva Mattes) decide to accompany a friend who is moving to America. They end up in small town Wisconsin. Unfortunately, life is no better there. I have avoided this film for a while because, from the description, it sounded kind of anti-American and maybe particularly anti-Wisconsin, the state in which I grew up. Those fears were unfounded. Herzog, of course, is not that kind of guy, and he spends a lot of his time in the United States. This isn't even really a satire, like I thought it would be. Unfortunately, I don't think it's much of anything. Bruno S. is such a messed-up person (both in real life and in the characters he played for Herzog) that the fact that he can't adjust to life in America is neither surprising nor at all damning. It seems like life is going to be hard for the guy no matter where he goes. Because of that, it's kind of hard to get too invested in this movie. It never feels like Herzog had much of a plan for it, anyway, and it just kind of plods along. I did love the final sequence. I could watch that chicken dance for two hours.
