Palm Springs (2020)

Film: Palm Springs (2020)
Stars: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, JK Simmons, June Squibb
Director: Max Barbakow
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

This week, we are going to be stepping away from the Oscars for our review theme, and instead go back to doing one specific year-2020.  I have been incredibly lax in the 2020 films that I've been catching.  This is happening for obvious reasons (at least in my part of the country, we cannot go to the movies as they haven't re-opened, and certainly the list of major movies that would be able to be watched is thin), but that doesn't mean there aren't A) some great movies that have moved straight to streaming and B) there weren't dozens of movies earlier this year that I could catch up on waiting (and praying) we'll get into theaters by year's end.  One of the former group is Palm Springs, a comedy that played at Sundance and set off a bidding war that eventually got Neon & Hulu to spend a record amount for the picture.  It just premiered this weekend and weirdly has been getting memes & actual buzz on Twitter (honestly, this feels like the first movie to really do this since quarantine began, which is exciting for my film-loving heart), and so I had to check it out as we spend the week investigating films released in 2020.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie takes place at a wedding in Palm Springs, California, where Nyles (Samberg) is in an unhappy relationship with his girlfriend Misty, who is a bridesmaid at a wedding.  Nyles is confident, and interrupts the wedding seemingly at random with a heartfelt speech that feels intended less for the couple, and more the bride's sister and maid-of-honor Sarah (Milioti).  They begin to hook up when out of nowhere a mysterious man named Roy (Simmons) shoots an arrow at Nyles, with Nyles crawling into a mysterious cave, yelling for Sarah not to follow him...which she does anyway.

As a result, both Sarah, Nyles, and we soon learn Roy, are stuck in the same day for the rest of time, repeating Sarah's sister's wedding over and over again, with only the three of them aware of what is happening (though a throwaway line late in the movie makes you almost believe that June Squibb is also going through the same day over-and-over again as Sarah's grandma, but it's never fully explained).  Nyles is already adjusted, and after much anger, so is Roy, but Sarah reacts in real-time to first disbelief, then anger, then despair, and finally instead of acceptance like Roy & Nyles, she finds a way out.

The movie is a bit silly, and occasionally tries to reach depths it doesn't really understand.  I particularly didn't quite get why Sarah was sleeping with her future brother-in-law, and there wasn't really a logical explanation on that one for me (at least logical enough to satisfy a mid-movie twist).  But Samberg is winning, charming, and sexy as our affable hero, someone who gave up on life after life literally gave up on him, and Simmons is very good in a small role, particularly when he tries to capture how he made peace with how he's stuck in this life, forever & ever.  The movie is funny, and a good distraction-if we weren't in Covid times it'd probably be a word-of-mouth hit, and considering the dearth of quality (new) comedies out right now, I'd highly encourage you take the distraction.