Spoiler Warning: This review features narrative spoilers throughout the text and goes into detail about the ending of the film.
"We kind of have no choice but to live. So I think your best bet is just to learn how to suffer existence."
My lockdown comfort movie, and (for now) probably my undisputed favourite thing to come out of 2020, Palm Springs is becoming something of a staple each year now. I can never turn down an opportunity to show this to people who haven’t heard of it, so when I ask the inevitable, “have you seen Palm Springs?” on the sofa and someone says no, it’s impossible not to turn it on. I adore this film; it provides me with a fun COVID memory, and beyond that, it still had me cracking up the fourth time watching it in less than a year.
It’s pretty remarkable that this is already my fourth time writing about a 90-minute time-loop comedy, and I haven’t run out of things to say yet. I could talk about how incredibly funny every scene is, how a single punchline doesn’t miss, its concealed hearty themes and passion for life. I forget how lovely Nyles’ speech to Sarah is as she prepares to explode in a quantum tunnel through time, and I think it is that very amusing combination of the insane and the romantic that I find so endearing. The first quarrel comes, and instead of an escape through the pouring rain or a dramatic chase, Cristin Milioti’s Sarah throws herself in front of an eighteen-wheeler. It’s such an absurd twist on the conventional romance tale. I adore it.
Andy Samberg and the aforementioned Cristin Milioti provide two of my favourite comedy performances in media history and chemistry that sears through your television screen. They make the most of an incredible screenplay that takes advantage of the increasing popularity in time loop movies and just gets on with the story. It’s certainly worth noting that it would likely be unattainable without its notable predecessors, Happy Death Day, Edge of Tomorrow, and the classic Groundhog Day. Whilst that may detract something from the film, I personally think the rest makes up for it.
I could talk about this for years, and I think I might be for the rest of my life. Palm Springs, with its psychotic J.K. Simmons supporting role and subtly hypnotic soundtrack, is an all-timer in comedies for me. I’ll be telling my kids to watch this when I’m old and grey and when people have forgotten about it. It’s just so magnificently fun. I live comfortably knowing that, if I have a really awful day, Palm Springs could make me laugh at the end of the day, whilst also having some really neat, beautiful bits of filmmaking within its silly story about the same day repeating.
Connor Clarke Film 