PALM SPRINGS 15
FILM OUT 9 APRIL AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
Nyles (Andy Samberg) is a guest at a twee boho wedding in the titular desert location. His flagrant all-day beer drinking, casual Hawaiian shirt ensemble and cavalier response to the ceremony suggests a certain DGAF attitude that intrigues sister of the bride and family black sheep, Sarah (How I Met Your Mother’s Cristin Milioti).
Sarah discovers the reason for his ennui the next morning when, after a cosmic accident, she wakes up trapped in a time loop with Nyles, living the wedding day and its horrors ad nauseam. The duo try to entertain themselves and escape their 24-hour Groundhog prison, in the process falling for each other and invoking the wrath of a fellow guest…
Within its bawdy rinse-and-repeat set-up, Palm Springs is a heartfelt romcom, a daffy time-travel adventure, a spiky study of existential angst (which anyone who’s been through lockdown
can relate to) and even a pertinent sexual-morality tale. That’s thanks to scripter Andy Siara’s keen ear for smart, authentic banter and the palpable screwball chemistry created by Samberg and Milioti.
Though the premise is hardly new (expect suicide attempts and misguided philanthropy), freshness comes from unexpected emotional investment and an approach to characterisation that accepts we’re all just messed-up blowhards looking for happiness. Plus, there’s a raging J.K. Simmons with a crossbow… Jane Crowther