Palm Springs: Amazon Prime Video Review

Cast: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, JK Simmons

Director: Max Barbakow

The time travel loop trope is given a fresh spin in this relatively entertaining  once it gets going dramedy about Andy Samberg's Nyles.

Seemingly carefree, Nyles meets up with reluctant maid of honour Sarah (How I Met Your Mother's Milioti) at a Palm Springs wedding. Both sickened by the whole wedding, the pair head off to the desert for a hook-up. However, just as things are going in Nyles' favour, he's hit by an arrow, and stumbles into a cave, warning Sarah not to follow him.

She doesn't heed the warning and goes in as well - waking up later to the apparently same day only earlier...

Picking up a malaise from the line "Today, tomorrow, yesterday, it's all the same," uttered by Nyles, Palm Springs builds on its timeloop raison d'etre and cuts loose with it - even if the resultant montages are familiar to anyone who's got even an inkling of what the genre offers.

More than a Groundhog Day, the film builds from an early pastiche of similar movies to reveal itself as somewhat of an earnest look at the reality of being stuck in a rut (something likely to resonate with many in 2020) and trying to get out of it.

It helps the leads are extremely personable.

Samberg brings some of the goofier and sombre edges to his Nyles, as the layers peel away and the reality of being condemned to repeat the same 24 hours starts to grate. Equally, Milioti delivers a fresh-facedness and dogged determination that anyone stuck in the loop would have as they tried to escape. The pair work incredibly well together and sell the fact this is a very familiar concept, given a slightly fresher edge.

Extremely affable once you get past the initially rough start, Palm Springs is a destination well worth checking into and sticking with.

Palm Springs is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.