Welcome to the third issue of Your Movie Mage, where I discuss underrated movies across genres. Last week, we delved into the inspirational comedy, “Hot Rod.” This week, we’ll be discussing another underrated film from Andy Samberg, “Palm Springs.” While still a comedy, this movie is more emotional than anything.
“Palm Springs” came out in 2020, when the lockdowns were holding strong and most people were in their house watching movies every day. The movie premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was bought by Hulu for $17.5 million, setting a Sundance sale record. Despite the seemingly encouraging response at Sundance for this film, it is not very well-known. I believe this because there wasn’t much advertising for the film and it was only available on Hulu, as this limited the audience significantly.
It took me a while to finally watch the film because I had not heard about it. Once I did watch the film, I watched it several more times. This movie is something special, as Samberg plays a more cynical role than his characters in other movies. He doesn’t make funny faces or voices, but rather opted for subtlety. While I love Samberg’s comedic acting in his other films, I really enjoyed the change that this one brought, as we were able to see another side of his acting.
But what is “Palm Springs” about? Set in Palm Springs, California, the film centers around two main characters, Nyles, played by Samberg, and Sarah, played by Cristin Milioti. These two protagonists meet at the wedding of Sarah’s sister. Sarah notices Nyles after he gives a beautiful speech about the importance of love and marriage and then afterwards when he dances through the crowd. Unlike the other guests, Sarah didn’t buy Nyles’ speech. She recognized Nyles didn’t believe anything he said, introducing that both characters are cynical and feel trapped. We soon learn that Nyles is literally and figuratively trapped, as he’s stuck in a time loop and has given that speech and met Sarah countless times. Sarah, however, is only trapped by the constraints of life—until she too is stuck in the time loop with Nyles.
This movie was perfect during the pandemic, though feelings of isolation weren’t new then and didn’t stop when the lockdowns ended. At some point in life, many people feel like they are repeating the same day over and over again. They lose motivation and excitement for the world around them. In the film, Nyles finally reached the point of giving up. He had tried and failed to escape for decades through “a lot of suicides,” but ultimately decided to accept his new life and try to fill the void by interacting with people at the wedding through surface level interactions that couldn’t develop past one night of fun. That is until Sarah inadvertently enters the time loop trying to help Nyles. She is not happy about this new situation and immediately has the same reaction Nyles had, which is to try to escape the time loop by dying or traveling as far away as possible.
However, in this seemingly living hell, the two find love and companionship in one another. Nyles didn’t know what would happen if he got out with Sarah, so he wanted to stay in the loop, where everything was known and safe. Nevertheless, he took that leap because he knew he couldn’t convince Sarah to stay with him, and he would rather be anywhere else with Sarah than in his comfort zone without her.
If you’re looking for a movie that takes the seemingly mundane, repetitive constraints of the modern world and makes you feel like you can do anything as long as you’re happy, this movie is perfect.
This is another movie with a soundtrack that I love. The soundtrack was done by Matthew Compton (aka Cornbread Compton), who did an amazing job creating pieces that match the sci-fi, emotional and romantic aspects of the film. I only wish they were longer, as each song is 30 seconds to one minute and 30 seconds in duration.
In the end, they are (seemingly) free from this boring, repetitive trap of a world, and both decide to stay in the same place they’ve been trapped in for years, just chilling in the pool together. I love this ending because they’re happy together. Some may think you have to make drastic changes to be happy, but this proved that’s not always the case. Still, Sarah couldn’t bear waking up in that specific day repeatedly. So, the solution wasn’t to make huge changes and have a mid-life crisis, but rather to evaluate what’s causing stress and make the necessary personal and exterior changes. Another lesson was we need one another. We can’t give in to isolation when sharing the mundane world with another makes life more exciting.
I give “Palm Springs” an underratedness score of 3/5 because, although I don’t feel it has received the attention it deserves, everybody that I know who has seen it has loved it. Along with that, there is some awareness of the film, as I do see it listed on best time loop movie lists. The film also broke Hulu’s opening weekend record. Despite this, it’s still very much underrated, as it’s a great movie that will resonate with everyone and deserves even more praise.