Palm Springs (2020) Review

Andy Samberg & Cristin Milioti star in this surprisingly fun version of a very played-out concept, supported by a scattering of moderately well-known names. Characters stuck in a time-loop only they know about has been done a lot. From the outstanding Groundhog Day and also in (a non-comprehensive list) Twice in American Dad!, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Angel, Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, Buffy, Doctor Who more times than some shows have episodes, the premise of season one of the shockingly good Magicians, all the Star Treks, Xena, X-Files, Christmas Again, Edge of Tomorrow, Happy Death Day (and Happy Death Day 2U), Doctor Strange, and my personal favourite and the closest to Palm Springs, Stargate SG-1.

Despite this, Palm Springs brings some freshness, and Nyles and Sarah are both likeable and charming, even when being awful. Which is very much Nyles's sweet spot.

Nyles makes a speech at the wedding (the groom is the CW's Superman), saving Sarah, does a fun little dance, and then they have a cosy chat. He shows her his girlfriend cheating. When you play it back it is very, very clear he is manipulating her. Their fun is interrupted by Nyles getting shot by an arrow and chased by a man in combat gear, who we later find out is Roy (aka Dillman for the B99 fans). Nyles drags himself away into a cave and is horrified when Sarah follows him. He yells at her to stop.

The day then restarts, and Nyles is bombarded by Sarah throwing beer cans at him demanding to know what is going on. She followed him and, we learn, she is trapped with him. The first loop for Sarah is chaotic and awful. What's quite nice is Nyles explains it as "one of those infinite time loops you may have heard about," showing real genre savviness. Nyles is totally checked out on the chances of getting out of the loop and is trying, in his own way, to convince Sarah to immediately give up. She naturally doesn't and is looking for answers.

Nyles has been in the loop for a long time. An incredibly long time. A near impossibly insane length of time. Little things, like how often he can perfectly do things like throw trash in a bin or play darts. He is totally comfortable in the loop, making himself a margarita in the morning in Sarah's family cabin.

The cave only opens at a certain time of day, after an earthquake. The cave is a "reset" point. Going in restarts the day for you. But they are in the same loop, so her restart is not a separate instance. (We assume. Perhaps it is, with infinite Nyleses and Sarahs spinning out.)

Sarah tries running as far and as fast as she can. She tries everything she can think of. None of it works, so she goes back to the one person who might be able to help.

She asks what the point of living is, as they are in this loop, and Nyles explains there's no way to die. He's done "a lot of suicides." He also explains that pain is real and there is nothing worse than slowly dying in the ICU as he takes his seatbelt off and puts his head on the dash.

After some time at a bar, and finding out a bit more about Nyles's loops, we get Roy's story, which is pretty similar to the way Sarah got into the loop. It was a "very long time ago." They do coke together, and things get wild. Roy wakes up in Irvine and hunts him every few days to weeks. Roy does some pretty horrifying things.

Sarah starts thinking about karma as a way out and accuses Nyles of never thinking of it. A very tired Nyles mutters to himself, "No, I've never thought of the multiverse." She tells her sister something and leaves confident this will be her last loop. It is not.

Giving up, they then spend a lot of loops together, practicing dances, shooting guns, doing reckless driving. Generally having fun without consequence. She gets him doing things he's never done before including stealing and crashing a plane, putting a bomb in the cake and using a crossbow to shoot it into the sky. They clearly have fallen for each other. Nyles does not want to admit it. He tells her more or less all his feelings have gone in his endless loops. But for a moment they see two dinosaurs (they had done a lot of shrooms) and they reconnect. And then they reconnect. (Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more.)

They fall asleep in each other's arms and wake, once again, apart. It's then we find out she was banging the groom.

Sarah is freaked out and pulls away, as Nyles tries reaching out to her, admitting he's come to care for her.

We then get a fun scene with Roy where Sarah runs off claiming Nyles is trying to kill her and she then hits him with a car. Nyles says, "What we do matters. They may not remember, but we do."

They have a knock-down, blow-out argument, which has been brewing for a long time. Nyles lets slip they've had sex a thousand times in the loops. He'd lied to her.

He has a bit of a breakdown as over and over again he can't find her. She wakes before him, so if she leaves he can't find her. After an unknown number of loops, he finds her "hair mist" smell on the groom's pillow. Nyles finds Roy and wants to end it. Roy's accepted, in a strange way much like Nyles, and lives his days in a loop with his family, a perfect day in some senses. His time in the hospital made him realize what he was putting Nyles through.

Whilst Nyles is having a breakdown, Sarah drives into the city, sits in a diner with a laptop, and learns physics. All of it. She's taking measurements in the cave, debating with experts, and realizing she is an expert. She also blows up a goat (for science!).

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She listens to his apology with barely suppressed excitement. She clearly appreciates it, but she is vibrating with the need to tell him she's figured out how to escape. Maybe. It might really kill them.

Nyles is scared to leave. He asks her to stay. She won't. He has to choose if he wants to be with her more than he wants to stay in his comfortable rut.

It takes longer than it should for him to realize he's an idiot. It's a little frustrating to watch, as we know what's going to happen. There are the expected misadventures, broken-down car, fake son of Spud, but he gets there in time and tells her how he feels. It drags a little, but it's sweet and the two are charming.

Naturally the explosion works, and we get a hilarious moment of the two of them getting chased out of the pool they've been using for an eon as the owners return to both of their surprise.

Sarah and Nyles have escaped and left Roy instructions, but they are gone from the loop, meaning the version of Roy who could escape would be in a different version of the universe than Sarah and Nyles.

This film rests strongly on the shoulders of Samberg and Milioti and their chemistry. It's a very big bottle episode, and it's a very overplayed concept, but there is enough unique to it and enough charm that it's worth a watch.