SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
An impressive debut for director Max Barbakow, Palm Springs is buoyed by strong performances from its cast, and sharp writing that brings a welcome twist to the time loop tale.
A curious thing happened to me while I was watching Max Barbakow’s Palm Springs: I realised that though I wasn’t trapped by a quirk of quantum physics I, like many people, was actually stuck in a time loop of my own. This film dedicates all of its wit towards finding the humour in a world where people have grown tired and burnt out, and where total apathy and nihilism becomes very tempting indeed. Because who hasn’t felt like all their days are one and the same, with one day blurring into the next, even before 2020 spontaneously combusted in our faces? It has a powerful undercurrent of subtle wit and dark humour that gives it a sense of effortless momentum.
At first glance, it looks like yet another spin on Groundhog Day, a film that has gained so much recognition that I don’t even need to explain what it is anymore. The title has become one of pop culture’s unmissable references. But the way it combines soft sci-fi with romcom means that it quickly begins to take on a different feel. Palm Springs revolves around Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah (Cristin Milioti), who are trapped in a time loop while attending the wedding of Sarah’s sister Tala (Camila Mendes). Forced to relive the day of the wedding over and over again, things get complicated as both Nyles and Sarah begin to fall in love with one another.
The implication so far has been that this film is either awfully self-serious like many science fiction movies are, or incredibly mushy and formulaic like many romcoms. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Palm Springs is an incredibly chill movie, and refreshing for the simple reason that it feels so genuine and unforced, especially when it comes to its humour and its tale about the ups and downs of love and life. While you won’t be laughing non-stop, there are moments where the sharp, witty writing and script really shine through and the film earns your chuckles without being unrealistically silly. Its refusal to take itself too seriously makes it feel organic, as if everything that happens unfolds naturally without resorting to unnecessary contrivances. By the second half however, it does begin to lag and fall back into more familiar territory. It’s almost as if the writers, bent on telling a story about beating apathy, rather ironically fell asleep at the wheel and drifted off-course. The appearance of tropes and a rushed ending are the most obvious signs of a missed opportunity to course correct.
Regardless, it’s the sort of film that simply lets the work of its cast and crew speak for itself rather than hammering us over the head with pretentious performances and the overwrought direction and style of an auteur director in an overstuffed shirt. Palm Springs is well-edited with a kind of simple workmanlike flair, segueing easily from one character’s point of view to another, and using the opportunity to fill in the blanks of the plot with clever twists and turns. Its sense of comedic timing is absolutely pinpoint accurate, and the whole film seems to have been created with incredible ease and an almost casual disregard. The characters are realistic and well-written, with leads Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti delivering fantastic performances: Samberg as an apathetic but totally carefree and utterly lovable dude and Milioti as the odd one out in her family, calmly admitting that their concerns about her drinking and sleeping around too much are
well-founded. The duo have winning chemistry, and make for a worthy pair of flawed protagonists, encapsulating the leftover angst of an entire generation over seeing a world that, for all intents and purposes, seems to be coming apart at the seams. They approach their troubles differently, wrestling with their newfound relationship and their seemingly hopeless situation, providing the film with a strong, relatable central conflict.
All in all, this makes for an impressive directorial debut, and a film for our times, especially when apathy and general disregard for what’s going around us becomes ever more tempting. At points, it even seems oddly prescient. But all that darkness is met with plenty of humour, and so Palm Springs comes out feeling much like a hazy, almost deranged fever dream that’s truly difficult not to like. With its strong cast, comedy and wit, it serves as a clever, funny and ultimately poignant reminder not to give in to those nihilistic impulses.
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