Film

Nuts in May

Name: Nuts in May
Genre: Comedy, TV Movie
Released: 1976
Cast: Alison Steadman, Roger Sloman, Anthony O'Donnell, Sheila Kelley, Stephen Bill

Comedy
Light-hearted

A meticulously organised middle-class couple descend on a Dorset campsite with rigid rules, passive-aggressive superiority, and an inability to tolerate anyone different from them. Mike Leigh's 1976 comedy is excruciating and hilarious—a portrait of social anxiety dressed as social confidence. It's for anyone who recognises themselves in their neighbours and finds that recognition darkly funny.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a sharp, deadpan British comedy of manners where two smug people of opposite temperaments keep colliding over nothing, and the awkwardness is the whole joke.

Skip it if you want a fast plot or big laughs; this is a small, talky piece with a stagey, low-budget feel and jokes that land through repetition and tension rather than punchlines.

What it asks of you: Under ninety minutes, it asks you to sit with slow, pointed scenes and a rising sense of irritation, and to find the comedy in the small social friction rather than waiting for it to explode.

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If you liked this

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Withnail & I1987

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Abigail's Party1977

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Nuts in May

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Stalker1979

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Tarkovsky's meditative science-fiction film about desire and certainty. A guide leads two men through a mysterious zone toward a wish-granting room. Looks like nothing else, moves like nothing else. Shares Nuts in May's interest in how people convince themselves they know what they want.

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Clockwise1986

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But Cleese's performance is more frantic than the original character work. Less interested in genuine observation than in pure comic chaos. Feels broader.

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But Painfully dated in its references. Some targets hit harder than others. The comedy is very aggressive and uncomfortable—not warm.

In the Loop2009

Armando Iannucci's film about politicians and bureaucrats circling Iraq War politics. Precisely written, viciously observed. Everyone is awful and the comedy comes from how they fail to see it.

But The script is so dense with dialogue and swearing that you'll miss jokes. Fairly left-wing. Can feel like a very long sketch that outstays its welcome.

This Is England2007

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But Tonal shifts from comedy to something much darker. Second half is genuinely upsetting. Some will find the sympathetic portrayal of skinheads offensive.

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Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon improvising around Sterne's novel. Self-aware, digressive, full of character acting. The pleasure is in watching performers riff on the English middle class and themselves.

But Almost plotless and very indulgent. The improvisation can feel self-congratulatory. If you haven't read Tristram Shandy, it won't land as well. Slow.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

Both are precise studies of how social performance collapses under pressure. Both feature protagonists convinced of their own reasonableness watching it count for nothing. The tone is deadpan observation of cruelty.

Yorgos Lanthimos's formal, unsettling drama about a surgeon and the mysterious teenager who infiltrates his family. Sounds like horror; functions like tragedy. Extraordinarily controlled filmmaking and an atmosphere you'll feel in your chest.

But Deliberately artificial, almost theatrical dialogue. Pacing is glacial and hypnotic. No catharsis—just mounting dread. Some will find it pretentious or cold.