Review: Palm Springs

I’ve come to realise over the last few years that I like Time-Loop Movies more than I thought I did, the likes of Triangle, Predestination and the Happy Death Day series have all impressed me and yet it’s not a sub-genre I’ve ever considered myself to be a fan of. Probably because the ultimate Time-Loop Movie, Groundhog Day, I found to be good but not great – don’t crucify me, it’s only an opinion. On the basis alone I was interested in seeing Palm Springs and how they used the Time-Loop in the setting of a romantic comedy; the results were funny, endearing and often nihilistic so I enjoyed the whole thing immensely.

It’s November 9th, the wedding day of Tala and Abe at a Palm Springs resort in the California desert. During the reception, maid of honour and the bride’s sister Sarah has an encounter with Nyles, the boyfriend of bridesmaid Misty and clearly wanting to be somewhere else and much drunker. Since Sarah feels the same way the two of them head out for privacy in the desert when Nyles is attacked by a strange man with a bow, Nyles escapes to a nearby cave with a strange glowing light inside and warns Sarah to stay away, naturally she doesn’t and the light envelops her until she wakes up on November 9th again.

Freaking the fuck out, Sarah finds Nyles again who tells her she’s now stuck in a time-loop, one that he has been stuck in for a long, LONG time and has come to accept his predicament through booze, burritos and occasionally being tortured by the only other person stuck in the loop with him, Roy – the man with the bow - who lives far enough away to not be a constant problem. After Sarah has her freak-out and a couple suicide attempts cause why not, she embraces Nyles’ soft approach to their predicament and the two of them just have fun going crazy with drink and drugs since nothing fucking matters anyway. But it’s when the stuff that does matter starts coming back to bite them in the ass that they both have to start getting their shit together and getting out of the loop, even if it kills them.

The plot moves surprisingly fast, especially in the first two acts, almost as if they knew most people would be aware of the time-loop concept so they introduced it as early as they could, got the freak-out out the way and allowed themselves to focus solely on the relationship between Nyles and Sarah. I actually really liked the story in spite of, and indeed because the time-loop concept wasn’t the most important part, for the first half of the film it allows Nyles and Sarah the chance to do a ton of shit and have fun with no worries of repercussions and set the blooming of their relationship but it’s the 2nd half once their guilt and their mistakes start becoming unavoidable where the time-loop is used exceedingly well. It’s a film that could’ve been pure sci-fi or pure rom-com and lost very little either way but utilising both and doing them justice makes it even better.

Part of what makes it work so well is the characters, the supporting cast has their moments with J.K. Simmons shining as Roy, the maniac who blames Nyles for trapping him in the time-loop, naturally it’s J.K. Simmons and he’s amazing anyway but the guy can play hilariously psychotic perfectly and Roy is hilariously psychotic, even more so once you see him on home-turf. But the core of this movie belongs to Samberg and Milioti who as brilliant together as they are apart, Samberg’s role as Nyles is actually very clever since he’s already in the time-loop, he’s lived countless years, possibly even decades of this one day and he’s reached the point where he genuinely doesn’t give a shit anymore, he’s done copious amounts of drugs, he’s had sex with nearly everyone at the wedding – up to and including one of the groomsman – he’s killed himself more times than he can count and he’s reached the point of depressing serenity, living his trapped life with booze and burritos. Once Sarah gets trapped with him he’s initially happy to finally have someone he can relate to again but at the same time it forces him to look back on how much of his old life he’s lost track of – at one point he can’t remember what job he had before being trapped. Samberg obviously has the charm to fit into this R-Rated rom-com but it’s those small moments when he lets Nyles depression hit and how easily he can look past that when he’s with Sarah that makes him work so well here.

Sarah herself – played by The Mother Cristin Milioti and just as charming here – is the newcomer to this wibbly wobbly timeline bullshit and as such plays as our eyes into this madness. Naturally she’s freaked out and takes to the suicide route a little faster than anticipated, but once she realises that’s no good she settles into the booze and burrito lifestyle that Nyles has to offer, occasionally stopping for the odd rehearses dance recital or two. Like Samberg, Milioti has the charisma to make Sarah instantly likeable, even when she’s losing her fucking mind, but where Nyles has hit rock-bottom and made himself comfortable there, Sarah is in the process of hitting it with this wedding bringing up some of her worst acts and being forced to accept the fact that she’s a bad person and maybe doesn’t deserve redemption. It’s a thin line to tread without making Sarah too much of a fuck-up to be unlikeable – especially considering what she does – but Milioti nails the balancing act, giving Sarah enough drive, regret and self-worth to better herself as the film goes on.

What makes Nyles and Sarah work so well together is that they’re both kinda shitty people, both lie and cheat and steal even before the time-loop, but being forced together where being that shitty is more difficult to hide kinda forces them to be somewhat decent, at least to start with. Both of them see a lot of themselves in the other but also the chance for something better, for Nyles it’s someone he can relate to and actually have a reason to give a shit again, for Sarah it’s someone who knows her flaws and still cares for her regardless. It’s one of the reasons I think they needed to go for the R-Rating here, this relationship needed to be a harsh one in order for both Sarah and Nyles to work through their issues together.

Directed by newcomer Max Barbakow, the film manages to be both a great time-loop movie and a great rom-com by playing into the best parts of both genres, the time-loop especially since even before we find out about it we can tell that Nyles has perfected every moment of the day to his advantage and once Sarah gets involved they continue that line of thinking with an intensely choreographed dance routine for no other reason than because they could. What’s great is that because Nyles and Sarah are two regularly shitty people they do a lot of the stuff that regularly shitty people would do with no consequence, they take mushrooms, they steal a plane, they crash a plane, shit that anyone would do if they didn’t have to worry about tomorrow, it’s refreshing to see this level of Average Joe bullshittery in a film like this without it feeling detrimental to the characters.

In terms of the rom-com elements it works just as well though not always in the way you might expect. Obviously the film is funny, and I had quite a few moments where I audibly chuckled, and the charming pairing of Nyles and Sarah has a lot to do with that but it’s the romantic angle that took a turn towards enhancing an already strong film. To sound like a contradiction, the romance works because it doesn’t, for all the drugs and dancing both Nyles and Sarah have a lot to work through and when the film comes to the inevitable 2nd act break-up it feels earned because of how the two characters have been built up and how they’ve come about their break-up. And you can feel it, especially with Nyles who now has to relearn his coping of loneliness and clearly struggling, it doesn’t take the film straight to depression but it’s a jolt that definitely improves the film for pulling it off so well.

Plus once Sarah’s story has its own little reveal and everything comes together at the end to a Kate Bush soundtrack I can’t deny that I was invested in whatever happened to these two.

I really enjoyed Palm Springs and I kinda want to give it another go to see if there’s any character notes that I missed first time round. It takes the premise of a time-loop rom-com and does justice to both genres with some genuinely funny and surprisingly dour moments, it handles it’s concept exceptionally well by embracing the shittiness of its two leads and having them get up to all kinds of dumb shit for no other reason than because they can and the coupling of Samberg and Milioti as two pretty bad but relatable flawed people who bring out the best and worst of each other is the charming glue that holds the film together.

8/10