Palm Springs

It would be too simplistic to compare Palm Springs to Harold Ramis' cult comedy Groundhog Day (1993) in which the character Phil Connors, a television journalist and annual reporter in the town of Punxsutawney, was caught in a time loop and relived his greatest misfortune on the same day. Bill Murray's perfect performance, a script full of great ideas and Harold Ramis's inspired direction forever established the film as a cult and timeless fantasy comedy. Many other films have taken up the theme of this thematic loop with varying degrees of success, such as About times (2013), Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and Happy Birthdead (2017) .

What precisely differentiates Palm Springs from Groundhog Day is that this film is both a barely hidden tribute to 4 weddings and a funeral but also a romantic comedy in which the expression "forever" repeated during a wedding ceremony takes on its full meaning. In the same way, Palm Springs distances itself from the aforementioned films by placing not one person in this time loop but three (Nyles, Sarah and Roy). By mixing several film genres and finding the perfect approach Palm Springs easily stands out as this year's best romantic fantasy comedy.

The simplistic story features the character Nyles (Andy Samberg), who meets bridesmaid Sarah (Cristin Milioti) at a wedding and unwittingly drags her into the time loop in which she is trapped. Despite the fact that nothing seems to bring them together, they will learn to appreciate each other, try many different ways to die together (like Phil Connors in Groundhog Day) and try to find a way out of this time loop and survive the character of Roy (J.K. Simmons) who holds a grudge against Nyles for having dragged him into the time loop as well. Even though the film follows the plot of the aforementioned films, Andy Siara's script and Max Barbakow's inspired direction give Palm Springs a special cachet that is reinforced by the fact that the story takes place in a desert location far from a large American city.

One of the great qualities of the screenplay is to avoid oversimplification and to try to give real depth to the two main characters, Nyles and Sarah. While the former seems to have given up hope of getting out of this time loop and takes advantage of it to try new experiments, some crazier than others, Sarah has a progressively more scientific approach and takes advantage of this day that repeats itself indefinitely to study aspects of this time loop and look for a way out. As in the films mentioned above, we can already know the outcome and that is not what is most important here. By focusing on family secrets, various deceptions, Pam Springs reminds us of the power of 4 weddings and a funeral in which two people will meet and find true love.

Broadcast last July in the States on the Hulu channel, you will have to be patient to discover early 2021in France on Amazon this excellent film that we can already bet you will want to see it several times to appreciate its many qualities. Just for the presence of Andy Samberg (former member of the cult show Saturday Night Live and hero of the Brooklyn Nine Nine series), Palm Springs must be seen and appreciated as a movie destined to become cult like is Groundhog Day (1993).

Palm Springs
Directed by Max Barbakow
Produced by Chris Parker, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Dylan Sellers, Becky Sloviter, Jorma Taccone
Screenplay by Andy Siara
Starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti Peter Gallagher, J. K. Simmons
Music by Matthew Compton
Cinematography: Quyen Tran
Edited by Andrew Dickler, Matt Friedman
Production companies : Limelight Productions, Lonely Island Classics, Sun Entertainment, FilmNation Entertainment
Distributed by Neon, Hulu
Release date: January 26, 2020 (Sundance), July 10, 2020 (United States)
Running time: 90 minutes

Viewed August 1, 2020

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