Cheryl Anderson

For years Australian films struggled to rise above the tendency to portray ourselves, and be portrayed, as a bunch of drongos living in a banana republic. I found ‘The Nut Farm’ pitched the humour too close to the inane. The ‘nut’ jokes were inevitable though I’m very glad that there was only limited movement towards ‘pee and poo’ humour. The film was embarrassing in its portrayal of Australians, and Kiwis for that matter. It’s a pleasant and harmless movie that makes a good point about fracking but are people going to hear the message if they’re too busy doing the cultural cringe? Overall it ventured too close to the inane for my liking, which was a bit of a shame. I think it missed the opportunity to be genuinely funnier. 2 1/2 - 3 stars.