The creative forces behind Palm Springs couldn’t possibly have known during filming that their indie romcom would come out in the midst of a worldwide quarantine. Maybe it’s fate, coincidence, or the machinations of some large scale time loop we’re all currently experiencing, but this quirky, inventive comedy is exactly the right film to meet this specific cultural moment. After all, who among hasn’t felt like we’re reliving the same day over and over since quarantine began?
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Palm Springs takes place in the titular town during a wedding, where Nyles (Andy Samberg) meets Sarah (Cristin Milioti), the older sister/maid of honor to the bride. The goofy, laid-back Nyles immediately sparks with prickly black sheep Sarah and they hook up.
It’s romcom business as usual, until Sarah follows Nyles into a glowing red cave and gets sucked into his time loop. She wakes up to discover that every day is November 9th, the day of the wedding. It’s a conceit we’ve seen before, in films like Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow. But Palm Springs takes the time loop concept and runs with it, and director Max Barbakow creates a film that explores nihilism, intimacy, and monogamy in hilarious new ways.
As Sarah struggles to come to grips with her new reality, she’s guided by Nyles, who has been trapped in the loop for an unknown but long amount of time. “The only way to really live in this is to embrace the fact that nothing matters,” Niles says. When Sarah asks him what the point of living is, he responds, “Well, we kind of have no choice but to live. So I think your best bet is just to learn how to suffer existence.”
And so they do. The two drink beers in the pool, learn elaborate dance numbers, and choreograph overly elaborate pranks on the wedding party. Samberg and Milioti have terrific comedic and romantic chemistry together, easily riffing off of one another. Andy Samberg brings an undercurrent of sadness to his apathetic permanent vacationer, but it’s Milioti who is a revelation here.
After her breakthrough performance as the titular mother in How I Met Your Mother, Milioti has popped up in several great roles, including her turn in Black Mirror‘s “USS Callister”, where she plays another character trapped in circumstances she cannot control. Milioti’s Sarah is at turns bitter, furious, goofy, and brilliant. She’s a complicated, nuanced character, the kind who rarely gets to lead her own romantic comedy.
As Sarah grows weary of the time loop, she searches for a way to free herself, while Nyles is resigned to being stuck. It’s an apt metaphor for depression, the tedium of every day life, and the all too relatable feeling of being stuck in a rut. Andy Siara’s script plays on many time loop tropes to hilarious effect, while probing the deeper moral quandaries of his characters. J.K. Simmons shows up as a fellow wedding guest with his own secrets, but to reveal any more would ruin things (do stick around for a mid-credits scene though.)
Palm Springs is a delightful and moving watch, and an apt reminder that, with the right person beside us, we can weather even the worst of time loops and weekend weddings.
Palm Springs is streaming now on Hulu.
(image: Hulu)
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