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A Day for a Life


Palm Springs opens with Andy Samberg’s dispassionate slacker Nyles awakening on the morning of a wedding that he and his unfaithful girlfriend (Meredith Hagner) are guests at. He meanders through most of the day in a Hawaiian shirt and with a slovenly attitude quite inappropriate to the proceedings. At the reception, he gives an impromptu speech that the maid of honour and sister of the bride Sarah, played by Cristin Milioti, was unprepared to deliver -and the two subsequently hook up. But while on the beach together, they’re interrupted by an apparent madman shooting Nyles with a crossbow. Nyles crawls towards a mysterious red light in a cave and though he warns Sarah not to follow, she does; and the next thing she knows she’s awakened at the beginning of that same day.
It would be too easy and a tad lazy to call Palm Springs a mere rip-off of Groundhog Day. Though it is a time loop story and consequently uses the function of that plot device as a way to bring about personal growth for its protagonists, it’s not so concerned with the mechanics of its premise as much as the consequences, both the lackadaisically comedic and at times, the grimly existential. The chief difference that sets it apart from many a time loop narrative is that it’s not just one person living the same day over and over again. Nyles has been stuck on this wedding day for a while, explaining to a degree his detached attitude, while Sarah is the horrified newcomer to this reality. The aforementioned madman, an older guy from Irvine called Roy, played by the always exceptional J.K. Simmons, was also trapped in the time loop by Nyles after a drunken night together, and occasionally shows up to enact violent vengeance. It’s ultimately pointless, as people stuck in the loop can’t die, but seems to be a cathartic exercise for Roy.
This is just one of the many ways Palm Springs has fun with its conceit, taking the internal periphery of their situation and lack of consequences to some wild ends. Though the film is produced by The Lonely Island, its’ creatives are entirely new talents, being the film debut of both its writer Andy Siara and director Max Barbakow, who share a story credit. The enthusiasm they have for breaking down and remixing this particular kind of narrative shows through in a carefree energy that is both parts whimsical and outrageous, as well as heaps of funny dialogue that Samberg and Milioti deliver with expert flair. Nyles and Sarah are the best and worst people to be locked in a state of eternal recurrence, a miserable, cynical, damaged pair, each with emotional baggage they’d rather avoid. And so it makes it relatively easy for them to embrace the inherent nihilism of their purgatory and “suffer through it” as Nyles says by distracting themselves with elaborate antics and choices.
It is rather grim beneath their high jinks and devil-may-care attitudes though. Nyles at one point seems genuinely unable to remember his job, he’s been here so long. And eventually Sarah is faced with the reality of what she wakes up to each morning, a permanent reminder of the personal mistakes she’s trying to run from. Their discretions and who they are as people are frozen in time, even if they themselves may grow, and it takes a toll, though more viscerally on Sarah, not in a position to brush them away as easily as Nyles. The film demonstrates a remarkable pathos as its characters try to find meaning in meaninglessness and grapple with the loneliness of existence, in addition to their more frenzied endeavours.
Frequently the film teases these dense existential quandaries, though being a romantic-comedy it would of course settle on companionship and human connection as its solvent. Not that it is or isn’t the case. Nyles certainly is rejuvenated by his relationship with Sarah, finally having someone to care about, and she too would have a much harder time in this temporal prison without his experience and weirdly ethical compass. Samberg and Milioti’s chemistry is fantastic, to the point that though they allude to the romance only developing out of necessity, it feels no less legitimate. And even while Nyles regresses in the last act to almost a cliché, Samberg still plays a sincerity I wouldn’t have expected of him. Milioti though is the real star of the film, in a headline role that’s been a long-time coming for the Tony Award winner. She’s both an equal to Samberg in humour, and the beating heart of the film as the more interesting character of the two. She acts with an effortless naturalism in spite of the heightened concept and tone, conveying so much of the pent-up pain and confusion Sarah is going through with little more than the immense expressiveness of her eyes or her poise. Milioti has been great in just about every project she’s been cast in the last several years (even in that thankless title role in How I Met Your Mother), and hopefully Palm Springs will prove to be her big cinematic breakthrough.
Not a great title though. And the film ultimately under-utilizes Simmons in relation to his plot significance -though he and Samberg do get a really good scene together in the third act. Overall, I feel the movie could have had a little more fun with character deaths than it did as well -mostly that aspect of the time loop is relegated to a single montage (what are the chances by the way, that in this environment two movies would release on the same weekend featuring characters who are functionally immortal?). And that last section of the movie does resort to some more formula storytelling to get it to that merged narrative and romantic climax, leaving something to be desired in Nyles’ character development.
The better romantic scene occurs earlier in the movie during a desert camp-out at night. Looking out over the stars the pair believe they see dinosaurs moving among the far off hills. Maybe it’s a mirage, maybe it’s the effects of the mushrooms they were taking, maybe it’s indicative of a larger consequence of the time loop or that mysterious magic cave that we know nothing about. Whatever it is, it’s extraordinary! Though they’ve lived this day dozens of times, Nyles and Sarah have never experienced this moment, and wouldn’t have at all had it not been for each other. But that moment exists in every day. We need only find the right people to help us see dinosaurs too.

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