Abe Fried-Tanzer nearing the end of Sundance 2020...
Time loops are cool again thanks to all the hoopla around Russian Doll, but, in the same way that experiencing the same day over and over again gets stale after a while, has the phenomenon been explored enough at this point? Hulu and Neon certainly didn’t think so when they set a Sundance record by spending $17.5 million (and 69 cents) for Palm Springs, a comedy that deals with the topic yet again...
This hilarious take on reliving one day repeatedly stars Andy Samberg as Nyles, who wakes up in a hotel room ready to attend a wedding. He shows up to the reception in a Hawaiian shirt and a bathing suit, stepping in so that the frazzled maid of honor, Sarah (Cristin Milioti), can be saved from having to make a speech. After catching his girlfriend Misty (Meredith Hagner) cheating with someone else, Nyles sneaks away with Sarah, and, after their hookup is interrupted by an uninvited guest, Sarah follows Nyles into a mysterious cave and finds herself stuck in the very same loop, waking up each morning to that same wedding.
The setup and what might pass for science aren’t so important here, since it’s much more about how Nyles and then Sarah deal with their predicament. Nyles recounts the thousands of different ways he has killed himself to restart the day, and Sarah even manages to drive all the way back to her Texas apartment before passing out and waking up back at the wedding destination. What’s most watchable are not their attempts to break free of this cycle but the joyous fun they have when they’re just trying to enjoying it. One such moment where Nyles pretends to find a bomb in the wedding cake and then actually shoots it into the sky where it detonates is a great example.
Samberg and Milioti, best known for their roles in the TV series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and How I Met Your Mother, respectively, make a terrific onscreen duo. Oscar winner J.K. Simmons also has a strong supporting role, and Hagner, who is featured in another Sundance film this year, Horse Girl, is perfectly cast. Director Max Barbakow’s feature film debut is a hilarious ride, full of laughs and surprising sincerity. As an audience member, this is absolutely the duo I’d want to see to experience the same scenes over and over.