Palm Springs

A thoroughly engaging and ingratiating sci-fi comedy, Palm Springs follows Andy Samberg’s Nyles as he inadvertently drags Cristin Milioti’s Sarah into the time loop he’s been trapped in for months (and possibly years) – with the pair subsequently attempting to make the best out of their less-than-ideal situation (while also avoiding the murderous advances of J.K. Simmons’ mysterious Roy). It’s a relatively familiar setup that’s employed to innovative and progressively enthralling effect by filmmaker Max Barbakow, as the director, working from a tight screenplay by Andy Siara, delivers a briskly-paced endeavor that benefits quite substantially from the stellar work of its two stars – with Samberg’s impressively nuanced and affecting performance more than matched by Milioti (and this is to say nothing of Simmons’ predictably compelling turn as the increasingly sympathetic Roy). And although the picture periodically does fall back on the tropes one has come to associate with stories of this ill, Palm Springs effectively compensates for that, and for a narrative that occasionally does threaten to grow repetitious, with a series of impossible-to-predict plot developments that pave the way for an engrossing and unexpectedly moving third act (ie the film does, on top of everything else, work exceedingly well as a fairly captivating romance). The end result is a seriously well thought-out and put-together bit of science-fiction tinged filmmaking, and it’s clear, ultimately, that Palm Springs fares much, much better than its myriad of similarly-themed brethren.

**** out of ****