Palm Springs
Composite Score: 82.63
Starring: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons, Peter Gallagher, Meredith Hagner, Camila Mendes, Tyler Hoechlin, Chris Pang, Jacquelin Obradors, June Squibb, Dale Dickey, and Conner O’Malley
Director: Max Barbakow
Writers: Andy Siara and Max Barbakow
Genres: Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi, Drama
MPAA Rating: R for sexual content, language throughout, drug use, and some violence
Box Office: $1.51 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Palm Springs is a 2020 romantic comedy/time-loop film starring Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti about two people stuck in a time loop at a wedding in the Palm Springs area of California. The film features an original take on both romantic comedies and time loops, implementing tropes of both without ever fully falling into either mold. It’s fresh, funny, and incredibly enjoyable to watch as Samberg’s Nyles and Milioti’s Sarah work out living together and potentially escaping together in a time loop. The blend of humor, romance, sci-fi, and relationship drama turn this film into a truly great film worth watching over and over again.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
If you don’t love time loops or romance or comedy, this film probably isn’t for you, but honestly, it really is for most people. Honestly, the biggest knock against it might be some convenient plot devices that come up in the film’s third act, allowing them to potentially escape the time loop. At the same time, this knock is true of probably around 90% of time loop films. If your suspension of disbelief allows for the existence of time loops but not convenient loopholes for potentially escaping them, then I don’t know what to tell you other than, you’re probably going to be mildly frustrated with this film’s third act.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Palm Springs plays with the time loop concept in a very fun and original way. By starting out with a character who has lived for quite some time in a time loop, the audience is introduced to a very different take on the genre, with someone already jaded because they have tried everything that you see in other circumstances, with clearly no result. By then adding not one, but two, other characters who are also experiencing the time loop, we get again a semi-unique genre twist that highlights the contrasting ways that different personalities deal with fate. While Nyles has a nihilistic acceptance about the loop, Sarah has a determination to escape (for good reason), and J.K. Simmons’s Roy works through an angry resentment to eventual satisfied acceptance.
Palm Springs doesn’t stop at just being a refreshingly unique take on time loops; it also works in a new take on the romantic comedy aspect that often works its way into such films by having Sarah and Nyles both experience the loop. The way that Sarah ends up in the loop plays a major role in their will-they-won’t-they relationship as she comes to appreciate having someone to share eternity in the same day with even as she resents him for being the reason she is there. It’s a fun play that lends most of the agency in the relationship to Sarah (refreshing). Both characters have to work through their own flaws before choosing each other, and we see both go through satisfying character arcs in the process, a difficult feat for a ninety-minute film. Even though you find yourself rooting for them to end up together, there is a world in which this film ends with the romantic leads not together and the audience is okay with it, which I think is really fun too.
To top all this off, the performances in this film are a cut above many others in either of its genres. Simmons brings an almost insane drive to his character, reminiscent of a more comedic version of his Oscar-winning performance from Whiplash as he pursues vengeance against Nyles before ultimately accepting his fate and becoming a wizened family man. Samberg delivers what is, to me, his most heartfelt performance as Nyles, walking the line between his typical out-of-the-box comedy and a nihilistic sense of self-determination that works perfectly in setting the tone for the film from start to finish. The true star of the show, though, is Cristin Milioti as Sarah. From her crazed leap into the pool after Nyles to her out-of-control goading of police officers on the side of the road to an impassioned speech about her need to escape to her eventual determination to escape the loop, she shines, bringing an emotional weight to the character and film that they desperately needed. From front to back, her performance outshines the other, arguably bigger, names in the film as the audience finds itself rooting for her over all others.
Three brilliant performances top off a wonderfully unique take on romantic comedies and time loops in Palm Springs, making it not only one of the best films of the decade so far and one of the Greatest Films of All Time. Though it suffers from some the issues with suspension of disbelief like many other films in its genre, its originality and fun comedy make it more than worth the watch. This film is currently available to stream on Hulu if you haven’t seen it yet or if you are looking to do a rewatch.
