Palm Springs is an R-rated, Groundhog Day-esque, time looping, hilarious caper. If that sounds confusing, don’t worry, because the opening ten minutes were nothing but that. It takes place at a wedding in (you guessed it) Palm Springs and follows Nyles (Andy Samberg) and his day at his girlfriend’s (Meredith Hagner) best friend’s (Camilla Mendes) wedding day. It just so happens that Nyles is living that particular day over and over again. He appears to have adapted a very carefree, relaxed attitude until he accidently brings the bride’s big sister, Sarah (Cristin Milioti), into the loop. Together, Nyles and Sarah get up to mischief, grow fond of one another and then do it all over again! Samberg and Milioti have a fantastic on-screen together and their presence brings so much humour and heart-warmth to the film. Particularly in the camping scene, Samberg and Milioti both really connect with each other, which makes their relationship seem so natural and believable. Until the scene ends with the pair admiring at some dinosaurs, which I will admit was a little bit weird. Andy Samberg is also just purely amazing. His comedic timing and deliverance is absolute perfection. It’s also clear he wrote the film too; he has a humorous stamp of random spontaneous comedy and it is all over this film. He made Nyles fits so well into this exotic, tropical environment and he feels so relaxed and at home- as if he’s on a never-ending vacation.
One thing that was extremely ‘hit or miss’ for me was the repeated use of flashbacks during the film. Some of these were extremely effective, particularly when Nyles and Sarah were split up to help the audience catch up with what’s going on between them. However, sometimes the technique seemed overused and just got annoying.
Overall, Palm Springs is one of (if not the) the funniest films I’ve seen in a while- complete with amazing acting, writing and story. It is without a doubt a film that I could watch again, and again, and again.
