Delayed Reaction: Palm Springs

Premise: A woman gets trapped in an infinite time loop that another man has already been trapped in for a long time.

Every year, there are a handful of movies coming out of Sundance that I'm really curious to see. Normally, there's one movie that becomes among my top priorities for the year. Last year it was Late Night. Me & Earl & the Dying Girl and The Big Sick are some other recent ones. This year, it was Palm Springs. Everything about this movie sounded like something I wanted to see. I love storytelling gimmicks like repeating events over and over again to see how things do and don't change. Andy Samberg has fully won me over after years of Brooklynn Nine Nine. Cristin Milioti leads my "Why don't more people put her in things?" All Stars. She's always great. And, I miss good RomComs, especially when there's a hint of melancholy too. In a lot of ways, the Palm Springs formula is pretty close to that of two of my favorite movies of all time: Stranger Than Fiction, About Time. In other words, like Booksmart last year (which shared too much Superbad DNA for me to ignore), Palm Springs almost panders too much to my personal taste for me to be objective.

Anyway, I loved this movie. I almost rewatched it before writing this even though I only saw it two days ago. Despite the fact that I didn't see this movie in theaters, I'm going to treat this like one of my Movie Reactions and assume people haven't already seen this.

So, the movie is about Nyles (Samberg) and Sarah (Milioti). Both are in Palm Springs for a wedding. Samberg is the boyfriend of the bride's best friend, and she doesn't seem very interested in him anymore. Sarah of the sister of the bride. Nyles goes through the day disinterested and overly familiar with everything going on. Sarah is just plain miserable. After Nyles bails her out during her Maid of Honor speech, the two hit it off until - let's just say the night takes an abrupt turn and both wake up the next day, except it's still the same day. They're in an infinite time loop. Samberg has been trapped in it for long enough that he doesn't remember his life before it. After the initial shock wears off, Milioti embraces the repetition and, with someone new to share eternity with, Nyles finally has a reason to be excited in the morning. There are some other complications. They aren't hard to figure them out. I won't go into them either.

Samberg and Milioti are pretty much perfect scene partners. Samberg's childishness, Miloti's cynicism, and the general nihilism of the situation mix for a delicious cocktail. Samberg doesn't normally get a chance to be this jaded. Milioti doesn't normally get to be this fun. I love it. J.K. Simmons also has a prominent role that's a very J.K. Simmons character. I know this is probably a coincidence of casting, but I like to believe Samberg and Simmons hit it off so well on I Love You Man, that they signed onto this to work together again. It was nice that the movie doesn't pull from the same group of Sundance Actors who always seem to show up in comedies. They could've easily inserted Nick Offerman or Kathryn Hahn in this, but I like that I couldn't name everyone in the ensemble already.

The closest thing to a problem I had with the movie was that I wanted more. A lean 90-minutes was the correct length, but I also feel like I could've hung out with Samberg and Milioti for 12 more hours of random bar dances and millionth birthday parties. So, I guess that isn't really a complaint, is it?

Finally, I need to give the ending some props. I loved it. For a moment, I was afraid that they were going with something else, which I would've told myself I liked. Instead, I got the ending I wanted the most. There's a time and a place for mystery. Do yourself a favor and see this movie. If any part of it sounds appealing to you, then it probably is.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend