Palm Springs

Grade: A-

Once you learn the premise of Palm Springs (now available to stream on Hulu), it is impossible not to think of a certain movie. I am going to try to play fair and keep this spoiler-free. I think I can succeed. Yes, Palm Springs has a glaringly obvious inspiration, but this is one of those movies where the characters have never heard of any movies, so it goes unmentioned. It’s the elephant not in the room. Directed by Max Barbakow with a screenplay by Andy Siara, its episodic rat-a-tat-tat narrative style makes it feel like more of a TV series (Parks and Recreation and Schitt’s Creek came to mind) than a movie. But it is a feature film, and one of the best of the year. It takes the plot of that other one to which it owes such a debt, and effectively explores it further.

Nyles (Andy Samberg) is in town for his girlfriend’s friend’s wedding. It doesn’t take us long to learn that he is in a specific and unique situation that no other characters (to our knowledge, at the beginning) are in. After a series of events which made me laugh out loud due to its absurd randomness (the likes of which reminded me of Sorry to Bother You – my favorite comedy of 2018), the bride’s sister Sarah (Cristin Milioti) finds herself thrust into the same situation with him.

How they find themselves dealing with it, and each other, is what makes Palm Springs so endearing, even if we’ve been down this road before. I am a big fan of “I Threw It On The Ground,” a comedic song and video by Andy Samberg’s group The Lonely Island. I caught what might be an homage to it in the last scene at the bar. The character of Sarah has a Sarah Silverman type thing going on. I briefly thought it might have been Silverman. But no, it is the utterly charming, movie-stealing Cristin Milioti. Her character has lots of facets and “beats,” but she nails every one. Peter Gallagher and JK Simmons show up here as well. I first heard of them when they appeared together in a revival of Guys and Dolls on Broadway in 1992, but maybe your knowledge of them doesn’t go back as far. Gallagher gained notoriety for his turn as the Real Estate King in American Beauty, while Simmons was memorable as J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and then won an Oscar for playing the band director in Whiplash. I can’t talk about JK Simmons’ role here without giving away too much, but he has interesting layers. My friend June Squibb, who I worked with in a show in 1992, has a small and interesting role. Her final line hints that maybe she knows more than the typical character in this plot. The cinematography surprisingly comes into play, and punctuates particular scenes and moments well.

I loved Palm Springs. For me, it was akin to the best of Jason Reitman’s films. The running times tend to be on the short side, but they are thought-provoking cinematic experiences – so rich, voluminous and almost literally bursting at the seams with freshness and substance. In its easy to digest hour and 30 minutes, this will fill a new empty room in your brain for sure. Roger Ebert said “we live in a box of space and time, and movies are its windows.” Palm Springs is a glorious and refreshing respite from that box.

Grade: A-