Groundhog Day is held in such high regard that every movie that features a plot involving time loops gets linked to it, regardless of genre or the presence of any other narrative parallels. After 27 years of occupying this space alone, another romantic comedy has finally decided to follow Groundhog Day's storytelling formula. While time will tell if it can develop a comparable legacy, Palm Springs boasts the same combination of charm, laughs and lighthearted fun that allowed Groundhog Day to become a cultural touchstone.
What makes Palm Springs "two people get stuck repeating the same day for eternity" hook work is the fantastic lead pairing of Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti. There are clunky narrative detours involving puzzling, underdeveloped explanations of the physics of the time loop and adding melodramatic layers designed to accelerate the character's efforts to find a way to break the loop where the committed, multi-faceted turns of Samberg and Milioti are the only things keeping the project from falling apart.
The emotional fatigue and monotony that comes with reliving the same day isn't exactly a setup that's designed for romance to thrive in and the Samberg/Milioti team never treat it as such. There's hostility, a refusal to be fully honest with each other and even some anarchy when some unforeseen variables enter the equation at a few points alongside the inevitable sparks that tease the presence of a potential budding relationship. The lone constant through this rapidly-shifting emotional gamut is that Samberg and Milioti tackle the fluid nature of their character's relationship with the utmost grace.
Each sequence provides an opportunity for them to win the audience over in a different way (laughs, charms, soul-bearing revelations) and they do so repeatedly until it reaches the best possible conclusion for its characters. Getting to the point where the viewer is invested enough in the main characters that the eventual outcome makes them feel something positive is typically the ultimate goal of a romantic comedy and for whatever problems it has, Palm Springs is a big hit on that front.
While I'm not definitely not as smitten with it as a lot of professional critics are, Palm Springs is the best straight-up comedy of the year so far and another impressive entry on the film resume of The Lonely Island crew. Hopefully the collective enthusiasm and record-shattering streaming numbers (it's undisclosed viewcount over the first three day of release was the highest Hulu has ever had for a movie in its history) it's produced will be another step towards convincing the industry to start investing more resources into adult-aimed comedies.
Grade: B+
What makes Palm Springs "two people get stuck repeating the same day for eternity" hook work is the fantastic lead pairing of Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti. There are clunky narrative detours involving puzzling, underdeveloped explanations of the physics of the time loop and adding melodramatic layers designed to accelerate the character's efforts to find a way to break the loop where the committed, multi-faceted turns of Samberg and Milioti are the only things keeping the project from falling apart.
The emotional fatigue and monotony that comes with reliving the same day isn't exactly a setup that's designed for romance to thrive in and the Samberg/Milioti team never treat it as such. There's hostility, a refusal to be fully honest with each other and even some anarchy when some unforeseen variables enter the equation at a few points alongside the inevitable sparks that tease the presence of a potential budding relationship. The lone constant through this rapidly-shifting emotional gamut is that Samberg and Milioti tackle the fluid nature of their character's relationship with the utmost grace.
Each sequence provides an opportunity for them to win the audience over in a different way (laughs, charms, soul-bearing revelations) and they do so repeatedly until it reaches the best possible conclusion for its characters. Getting to the point where the viewer is invested enough in the main characters that the eventual outcome makes them feel something positive is typically the ultimate goal of a romantic comedy and for whatever problems it has, Palm Springs is a big hit on that front.
While I'm not definitely not as smitten with it as a lot of professional critics are, Palm Springs is the best straight-up comedy of the year so far and another impressive entry on the film resume of The Lonely Island crew. Hopefully the collective enthusiasm and record-shattering streaming numbers (it's undisclosed viewcount over the first three day of release was the highest Hulu has ever had for a movie in its history) it's produced will be another step towards convincing the industry to start investing more resources into adult-aimed comedies.
Grade: B+
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