One of the Golden Globe-nominated films for “Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy” this year is the comedy that mixes romance and science fiction “Palm Springs”. The American film directed by Max Barbakow, written by Andy Siara and starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, Peter Gallagher, Camila Mendes and JK Simmons, depicts the story of two strangers Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah (Cristin Milioti) who know each other at a wedding in Palm Springs. Nyles is the wedding bridesmaid’s boyfriend, while Sarah is the bride’s black sheep sister. During the party, when the two decide to spend time together, Nyles is attacked by a mysterious man. Sarah gets very scared. Nyles ends up entering a cave in an attempt to protect himself. Sarah accompanies him, although he asks her not to go to the cave. However, she does not listen to him and enters. The next day, upon waking up, they discover that they are reliving the wedding day, trapped into a constant time loop, “living like there’s no tomorrow”.
Watching this motion picture was a delightful experience. Unpretentious, the film presents an original and very creative story, with agile, unusual and surreal situations that caught my attention from the beginning to the end of it and made me curious to know what the logical reason would be, obviously within the universe of the film, for Nyles and Sarah to be stuck in the day before.
In addition to highlighting the quality of the nonsense great script, I want to praise the performances of the two protagonists Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti. He plays the subversive and nihilistic Nyles sarcastically and adorably. Not surprisingly, Samberg was also nominated for the Golden Globe for “Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy”. Milioti gives life to the family’s rebellious and detached, Sarah Wilder, who goes crazy living trapped in her new reality and tries to understand why that situation and how to get out of there. The two actors managed to build good chemistry between them and this factor is responsible for the success of the film.
They go through hilarious situations, taking advantage of them, “living la vida loca”, because after all, they can kill or die (I love when they steal the helicopter, crash it and kill themselves), nothing matters since the next day everything goes back to “normal” previous day.
The script seeks to provide an answer, a justification through a theory of physics about how they are stuck in the time loop, but even if it did not have that answer, the film would remain captivating, authentic and funny. It is undoubtedly one of the best comedies I’ve seen in years.
The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2020. Shortly after, Neon theatres and Hulu acquired distribution rights to the film. Neon and Hulu reportedly paid $ 17,500,000.69 for the film, breaking the previous record for the highest sale from a film from Sundance by $ 0.69. The film received positive reviews, with praise for the performances and use of the concept. In November, “Variety” reported the film was the 26th-most-watched straight-to-streaming title of 2020 up to that point.
The film is competing for “Best Film – Musical and Comedy” alongside “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”, “Hamilton”, “Music” and “The Prom”. Although I have not yet seen all the other nominees in this category (I’ve watched “The Prom”), I venture to say that Palm Springs has the potential to win the trophy. What do you think? Leave your opinion here!
