Palm Springs

Director Max Barbakow 
Starring: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons, Peter Gallagher, Meredith Hagner, Camila Mendes, Tyler Hoechlin, Chris Pang, June Squibb, Jena Friedman, Dale Dickey
Running Time: 90 min.
Rating: R 

★★★ (out of ★★★★) 

To its credit, Hulu original Palm Springs takes what's been becoming a fairly familiar premise and does a lot of things differently with it, directly addressing some little nagging problems that have always held the idea back. A character re-living the same day in a continuous time loop has, ironically enough, been repeated many times since its most famously successful iteration, 1993's Groundhog Day, to decidedly mixed results. That no film has come close to equaling it since does have a lot to do with the fact there's only one Bill Murray, but also the many self-imposed limitations filmmakers have put on the concept. 

Director Max Barbakow (working from a script by Andy Siara) doesn't box himself in like that, allowing this take to reach for heights those many imitators wouldn't. So even while Groundhog Day remains the benchmark in having most everything else beat in the romantic comedy department, this adds more than a few wrinkles to a certain type of movie we thought we had all figured out already. Its willingness to break rules we weren't conciously aware existed and its excellent use of two leads who have rarely been better, leads to a somewhat unique experience that taps into current events and feelings in ways that would barely register a few years ago. While they may not have known it before the cameras started rolling, if ever there was a more relevant time to release a film about two characters stuck repeating the same day, it's 2020. 

Nyles (Andy Samberg) has a problem that no one else seems aware of.  He's reliving the day of November 9th over and over again, waking up next to his girlfriend Misty (Meredith Hagner) in Palm Springs on the day she's serving as bridesmaid in her friend Tala's (Camila Mendes) wedding to Abe (Tyler Hoechlin). Drunk at the reception, Tala's sister Sarah (Cristin Milioti) watches as Nyles delivers the speech she's supposed to give and the two form a bond, going out to the desert together before he's unexpectedly attacked. Crawling injured into a nearby cave, he's sucked into some kind of a vortex, which she follows him into despite his warnings. 

The next day Sarah discovers the truth that it's actually the same day, and she's now stuck in this time loop he's been in. Failing to find a way out and having repeatedly committed suicide only to awaken in the same bed, Nyles now has a partner in crime, as the two wreck havoc and live for the moment knowing there won't be consequences to face. But that only lasts so long, as Sarah realizes she has as much reason to get out of this as he does for resigning to stay. Having finally found someone he wants to spend the rest of his days with, Nyles will have to decide if he wants to continue living in this seemingly neverending loop.  

Cleverly, the script makes sure Nyles' journey is already well underway by the time we meet him, even if we're not completely sure what that is yet. By sparing the viewer that overly familar set-up of discovering the protagonist's situation as he does, we get to see how this guy already has everything down to a science, having done this hundreds of times already. This leads to a great early gag with him on the dance floor at the wedding reception, anticipating the moves of every guest. 

The story doesn't get bogged down in needless expository descriptions of how or why this is happening, opting to show instead of tell, trusting we'll be onboard because Nyles is just too wacky and entertaining for us not to be. Basically, there's a cave with a time loop and that's it. Bucking the trend of this sub-genre, he's not the only one going through this, as Sarah's unwittingly dragged along for the ride, becoming for her and him to be a lot more fun than expected, at least until it isn't. 

The picture's peak comes when Nyles and Sarah fully exploit this new world devoid of consequences in a montage highlighting their debaucherous behavior, which take wildly different turns in completely different locations with a wide variety of hapless victims. Of course, all of this helps correct the problem this premise has always faced in having one person going at it alone and trying to convince everyone else in their vicinity of their plight, over and over again. Having two people in this situation really opens up creative possibilities that weren't there before, many of which Siara's script fully explores, allowing the characters to bounce off each other and mock everything and everyone around them, upping the hilarity level. 

Samberg and Milioti have great chemistry, with the former again proving his chops as a funnyman in no way distracts from his believability as a lead, albeit one more in the vein of fellow SNL alum Adam Sandler, when he's on his game. This is probably the most high profile feature role Milioti's had and she displays some quick timing and brings genuine likability to a character who isn't easy to embrace considering she's kind of a selfish trainwreck. If anything, this should hopefully further erase painful memories of her brief, creatively botched run as the title character in How I Met Your Mother, which did little to properly showcase her true comedic talents. 

The plot wouldn't be complete without a villain, wedding guest Roy, who's played by the great J.K. Simmons, even if that one-word description unfairly oversimplifies a role that's actually a lot more clever than it appears on the surface. He's one of the many ways the screenplay upends expectations, with the actor bringing a welcome crankiness and sarcasm to the proceedings. While he's one of the many complication arising in a Nyles and Sarah's relationship that wouldn't seem out of place in a more generic rom-com, the time loop plot at least makes it seem like anything but, continually raising the stakes.

That this manages to do something fresh here would be a victory in itself without the added resonance, even if I'm still not sure the resolution is completely what it could have been. It settles into a more traditional rom-com groove in its last act, making the movie seem slighter than it was midway, where it seemed destined, if not for greatness, at least cult status. But it's still a surprisingly original time loop movie from the moment it starts, as even our introduction to the idea feels novel, appreciating the audience's intelligence and never taking itself too seriously. It also doesn't fall back on the old trope that moral lessons must be learned for the characters to physically escape this. Of course, they both learn something anyway, but a more practical solution is presented that firmly puts the characters in charge of their own decisions and fates rather than being jerked around by the concept.

Palm Springs' top priority is to get laughs, and that it does, before unspooling a high concept story that makes those jokes and gags even funnier. It should seem obvious that the one thing you don't want to do with a movie that's plot revolves around repetition is make it "feel" repetitive with the same locations serving similar functions and the same people doing identical things,  But that's hard. This might be the only recent one of these to avoid that extremely common pitfall, more interested in the characters than the machinations of its own script.