Ricky Stanicky review: enjoyable US romp – with Melbourne gum trees

From a New York street in sunny LA to the surrounding desert standing in for alien planets, Hollywood has long transformed its natural and plasterboard-built locales into somewhere else. So why, then, does it feel so weird when Australia returns the favour?

Gum trees, is usually the answer. Any film shot here but faking there always bursts the bubble the second a eucalypt slips into view. Quite a few American productions did set up shop down under during lockdown, when much of the country remained open for showbusiness A-leaguers despite sealing the borders for the vast majority of residents.