Palm Springs

D: Max Barbakow

Neon/Hulu/FilmNation/Limelight/Lonely Island/Sun Entertainment (Chris Parker, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Dylan Sellers, Becky Sloviter & Jorma Taccone)

US 🇺🇸 2020

90 mins

Comedy/Romance/Fantasy

W: Andy Siara

DP: Quyen Tran

Ed: Andrew Dickler & Matt Friedman

Mus: Matthew Compton

Andy Samberg (Nyles), Cristin Milioti (Sarah), Meredith Hagner (Misty), J.K. Simmons (Roy Schlieffen), Camila Mendes (Tala), Tyler Hoechlin (Abraham)

Palm Springs offers a fresh spin on the timeloop comedy, popularised and never bettered with 1993’s Groundhog Day.

Andy Samberg plays a slacker who tags along to his girlfriend’s sister’s wedding day at a sun-drenched Palm Springs resort, and it doesn’t seem like he’s enjoying the day, spending most of it lounging around the pool and getting drunk.  It soon becomes evident that it’s not the first time he’s experienced this day, and he inadvertently brings his girlfriend’s sister into the same time loop.

Though it doesn’t do anything better than Groundhog Day did, it does bring in some fresh ideas, as well as having some originality in that it starts at a mid-way point somewhere in the overall story.

The performances are fine and though it’s not laugh out loud funny, it’s very easy to watch, even if you wouldn’t want to watch it every day for the rest of your life.

6/10