*Cannot talk about this movie without at least mild spoilers…

IMDB Synopsis

Stuck in a time loop, two wedding guests develop a budding romance while living the same day over and over again.

“You just have to embrace the fact that nothing matters.”

In the world we are living in during this pandemic, days have continuously felt similar. We all on some level are living out our own version of Groundhog Day. Well now we have a new movie to get into our lexicon because Palm Springs shifted that formula, and created one of the best comedies in awhile.

Palm Springs was a Sundance festival darling that got a lot of publicity, because when Neon and Hulu bought it they broke the purchase record for a Sundance movie. This was exciting because knowing that it would just come out on the streaming service and us having the ability to just watch it is great.

Directed by newcomer Max Barbakow, and produced by The Lonely Island, Palm Springs drops us directly into the time loop with our hero Nyles (Andy Samberg. Instead of seeing him learn what has happened to him, he has already been there for awhile and is acquainted with everyone and everything in this world. When Sarah (Cristin Milioti) mistakenly gets dropped into the loop as well, we see Nyles have to grapple with his attitude that nothing in this loop matters.

The first thing that popped off the screen for me in this movie was the obvious chemistry between Samberg and Milioti. They are so good together and you really invest in both their characters individually as well as them as a couple. We also get a dynamite performance from the always wonderful J.K. Simmons, which evoked memories of Simmons and Samberg chopping it up in I, Love You Man. There are a lot of twists and turns throughout the story but the arc between those two characters oddly became the heart of the story.

Stock Watch

Stock Up – Andy Samberg

I have been a huge Samberg advocate for a long time, and I am a massive Lonely Island fan. I love him on Brooklyn Nine Nine and I was obsessed with Popstar, so seeing him get a role like this was awesome. This is the type of thing he is built for and absolutely nailed it. He added the perfect mix of comedy and drama and I hope he continues with roles like these.

Stock Up – Cristin Milioti

Of course she was the Mother on How I Met Your Mother, but we know how that turned out….but since then I had not seen her in a ton of stuff. I thought she was a great leading lady, and again nailed the comedy while also being completely believable in all the emotional scenes. I really like what she is doing and hope to see more of her work.

*A couple other tidbits

• The music throughout the whole story was very engaging.
• I wish we got to see a bit more from all the people at the wedding, but I didn’t mind because of how enjoyable the two leads were.
• Peter Gallagher continues to have some of the best hair in Hollywood.

We do not get a ton comedies anymore, and especially not Rom-Coms. So it was really nice to just have a fun and loving movie with characters you can relate to. I had a smile on my face the whole time watching this play out and that is really all you can ask for.

Juice Rating:

*You can find my 2020 Rankings here.

*You can find all of my Movie Ratings here.

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