![]() Simmons), one of Tala’s wedding guests, who like Sarah also winds up in the loop-he’s actually in it before her-but reacts to this rotten turn of events by hunting Niles like an animal. On the extreme end of the spectrum, there’s Roy (J.K. Samberg, for his part, girds his usual nonchalant wiseassery with an undercurrent of nihilism: Rather than a clown, he’s a sad clown, miserable to his core but putting forth an effort to hide it. Sticking to formula, this isn’t a question of “if” but “when.” In the meantime, Palm Springs considers the ramifications of experiencing the same 24-hour period on repeat, and how that might change someone’s character. Might as well try to make up for her sins, and then get busy trying to get back to a straight temporal line. For Sarah, that means accepting the task of cleaning up her act, her “act” being an affair with the groom (Tyler Hoechlin), whose bride is her own sister, Tala (Camilla Mendes). ![]() For Niles, that means leaning in and making the most of his fate by drinking past excess and making speeches he doesn’t believe in to crowds of suckers in the thrall of matrimonial ecstasy. ![]() Nothing like a good ol’ fashioned time loop to force folks trapped in neutral to get retrospective on their personal statuses. Even when the party ends and the reality of the scenario sinks in for Sarah, Palm Springs continues to fire jokes at a steady clip, only now they are weighted with appropriate gravity for a movie about two people doomed to maintain a holding pattern on somebody else’s happiest day. But the film never stops being funny, even when the mood takes a downturn from zany good times to dejection. Sarah blithely stumbles smack into the loop despite’ Niles attempts to warn her off, and after going through every single stage of grief in rapid order, resigns herself to spending forever enjoying drunken, meaningless antics in the desert.Įventually, enjoyment amounts to jack shit because even forever in Palm Springs has its limits. Sarah (Cristin Milioti), the maid of honor, has only done it once, and learns to her peril after making merry into the wee hours with Niles that he’s stuck in a time loop, forced to face the wedding ad infinitum. All the same, he tolerates the pomp and circumstances, makes it through the ceremony, and drops an impromptu toast on bride and groom to the heartwarming joy of all attending.īut Niles has a secret weapon: foreknowledge. Apparently Niles harbors a deep contempt for the institution of marriage. ![]() Andy Samberg stars as Niles, a man clearly dissatisfied with his life as he wakes up the day of a wedding, has a perfunctory quickie with his young girlfriend, Misty (Meredith Hagner), and spends his day getting soused. Using Barbakow’s direction and Andy Siara’s script as filters, Palm Springs presents viewers with a blend of soft science fiction, raucous punchlines, and human drama, the last of these encompassing self-loathing, grief, love and high anxiety. Paradise becomes a sun-soaked Hell, a place endured and never escaped, where pizza pool floats are enervating torture devices and crippling alcoholism is a boon instead of a disease. Now imagine that “over and over” extends beyond a number the human mind is capable of appreciating. Imagine living the same day of your life over and over, stuck within an hour and a half of Los Angeles but so closely nestled in paradise’s bosom that the drive isn’t worth the fuel. ![]()
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