Into the blazing heat and clear blue skies of Nowheresville, Iowa, comes Alexa from Amsterdam. Played by the film’s sexy co-writer Cat Smits, the inquisitive Alexa has arrived to spend the summer in this unnamed small town, working on a documentary about gay suicide. Visits to the cemetery and references to a friend who recently killed himself hint her project is personal. But summer is not all about work. Sexually uninhibited Alexa tries out the local talent — both a lesbian artist she meets at a club and the boy who cuts the grass at the cemetery. Meanwhile, her landlord’s interest in his new tenant becomes obsessive and violent.

A seemingly simple plot lends itself to a film whose appeal lies in its fresh sensibility and assured visual style. The director makes evocative use of the midwestern landscapes and the writing and acting feel so natural that it’s hard to tell whether the interviews from the documentary film within the film, which are interwoven into Alexa’s story, are fictional or real. Heidi M. Sallows, as the laidback artist/bartender, gives a wonderfully subtle performance — her mixture of caution and lust will resonate with anyone who’s fallen for a supposedly straight girl.

At its heart, Bumblefuck, USA is a love story, one which revels in the small moments of life — fooling around in a lake on a hot afternoon, scrounging for art supplies at the local dump, or a cup of coffee in a polka-dotted mug.