Since You Can't Travel, Take A Twisted, Hilarious Trip To 'Palm Springs'
Starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milloti, J.K. Simmons, Peter Gallagher, Meredith Hagner, Camila Mendes, Tyler Hoechlin
R
Comedy, Romance
Run time: 1 hr, 30 min
Directed by Max Barbakow
On Hulu July 10, 2020
Needless to say, there are a lot more important things happening right now than the occasional movie drop on a streaming service. But if you’re like me and just need a thing or two to smile about that is removed from the current state of things, then, man, is Palm Springs good news for you. Apparently this film made waves at film festivals, and I totally see why. When I watched it this weekend, all I had known was what I gleaned from the preview: it seemed like a romantic comedy movie version of the Netflix series Russian Doll, and I wasn’t quite sure what would make this one any different.
The immediate difference is the tone - this movie somehow doesn’t have the darker aspect that can accompany this genre. Samberg and Milioti are utterly hilarious whether they’re saying a solid, deadpan one-liner or just casting a glance at one another. The plot isn’t too insanely different from Russian Doll or Groundhog Day. A person or couple of people are caught up in a day that keeps restarting and they alternate between wanting to take advantage of the opportunity to live like there’s no tomorrow and cursing the situation they’ve been stuck in. For Nyles (Samberg) and Sarah (Milioti), they just keep reliving the day of Sarah’s sister’s wedding. And just like in its predecessors, if you die or fall asleep at any point, you start the day over once more and it plays through once more.
One thing I weirdly loved about this movie is how little amount of time is spent on the ‘how did we end up here’ question. We get some super basic explanations that are still missing a few pieces, but that just doesn’t matter. The story they’re telling in this comedy is far more about the people in the situation, their personalities and their relationship than the situation itself. Sure, there are the standard conversations about how to get out of it, but it’s also just watching these two people figure out this insane predicament that literally no one else can understand. Samberg is solidly endearing as a man who has just basically given up on trying until Milioti joins him in having the same fate.
You could almost believe that we’re actually just watching these two actors goof off and hang out naturally, once you put aside the insane sci-fi-ish aspect of it all. And one of its best selling points is a thing I’ve advocated for for years: it is only 90 minutes long. If you can tell a well-rounded story and keep an audience invested quickly in less than two hours, that automatically improves a film in my mind. And when that shorter movie is laugh out loud funny and has a fantastic cast, it is truly a winner in my mind. I can’t wait until there are ‘real’ movie releases in theaters, but as long as I keep getting options like this on streaming, I certainly will be complaining a lot less.