Palm Springs

#MovieReview #PalmSprings #CristinMilioti #AndySamberg #Hollywood #SpoilerFree #RomCom

Apart from the obvious similarities and their collaboration as a father-son pair in That's My Boy (2012), Andy Samberg is the new Adam Sandler in one more respect-they are such goofballs that their acting chops often go unnoticed.

Samberg is a revelation in Palm Springs in what is easily his career-best role. The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star alongside Cristin Milioti (The Mother from HIMYM) dazzle as a pair of cynical wedding guests stuck in a time loop.

Riding on the legendary coattails of Groundhog Day (1993), Director Max Barbakow still manages to surprise you with some amazing twists and dollops of laugh-out-loud moments, springing up at the places you least expect them to.

Oscar-winner JK Simmons is brilliant as usual in a role that has very little screen time but makes a powerful impact.

A perfect romantic comedy during these tough times. Highly recommended.

I am not sure that time loop movies should be an entire movie genre. I am not sure that we needed another version of Groundhog's Day. I am not sure this movie should have attempted to explain the quantum physics involved in its plot. But I am 100% sure that I enjoyed watching it. I was genuinely amused, surprised, and touched thanks to some pretty great writing and performances. I walked in thinking the movie should not exist, and I walked away glad that it happened anyway. That's a pretty big compliment.

I was flipping through Hulu one night and saw this movie pop up, I saw it was Andy Sanberg and the cute chick from HIMYM, I thought hey maybe it'll be good for a chuckle, and if not, eh who cares. But it was a perfect late night gem, I love coming across movies or shows that I genuinely like by accident and with no expectations going in.

... but re-dimensioned in such a way that the films it copies will look a little less appealing next time it comes to replaying them - whether it be in the past, the present or the future.

For a film that rips its premise off the ultimate time loop movie, "Groundhog Day," "Palm Springs" is surprisingly unpredictable and exceedingly charming. It's got an anarchic anything goes vibe and a pair of vibrant actors, Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, who also happen to have a ton of chemistry together. It's a movie for our very troubled times and seems tailor made for a quarantined audience, where day bleeds into day and the repetition of the weekly grind is sending many of us to the loony bin. The sweet message at the center of this otherwise naughty film is that it's not the what we do that keeps us happy but rather the who we do it with. It's all about appreciating the little things that make life worth living moment to moment rather than focusing all of our energies on the big things that we chase at the risk of letting peace and contentment pass us right on by.

This message is most effectively encapsulated in the character played by J.K. Simmons, who spends the first half of the movie trying to kill Andy Samberg and then has a great scene toward the end that makes the most mundane situation imaginable seem like a little piece of heaven. How I can relate to that right now.....

Grade: A-