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A Review of “Palm Springs (2020)”

 

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I have always been a sucker for “infinite time loop” movies such as “Groundhog Day” and “Edge of Tomorrow”. So I was already thrilled to see this movie and it was getting a lot of praise from all the critics. There was just one problem I’ve had when thinking of watching this movie. I am not a big fan of romcoms…

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Let’s start with some of the praises I have with this movie. Firstly, one of the important aspects of a romcom is the chemistry between the two leads. In this case, Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah Wilder (Cristin Millioti) have great chemistry that is charming and effective. There are so many great moments between the two and seeing both of them perform silly antics such as a well-choreographed dance number is funny yet heartwarming. There are also strong performances from the supporting cast who play annoying over the top people to the point you can sort of see where the main leads point come from. Roy (JK Simmons) is the most relevant supporting cast as he is the third time looper and it is great to see him give a more wacky performance but I do feel he is sort of underutilised. Although, the main focus is on the main leads and in that case the lack of focus on supporting characters works in the movie’s favour.

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Another praise is that they found a unique way to tackle the time loop genre that differentiates itself from the other time loop comedy “Groundhog Day”. Right from the get-go, it is obvious to us the audience that Nyles (Andy Samberg) has been in a long time loop and we are not learning about the loop with him but from him. Additionally, having multiple individuals in the time loop together allows for it to go in a unique direction. The director and writers utilising the time loop to show the relationship between the main leads developing and growing as individuals is fun to watch and sincere. They also use the time loop to as a plot device for surprise twist and revelations and the film certainly has a lot of great twists.

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Now onto flaws of the movie and the first comes straight away in the first 10 minutes and it is how raunchy it is. The trailer for the movie made it seem like a sincere and heartwarming time loop romcom, which to be fair it is, but this movie is extremely R Rated with it’s over the top sex scenes that made me question if I was even watching the movie that was advertised. It gives a wrong first impression of the movie and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if someone stopped watching after the first 5 minutes because of how stupid and unnecessary these scenes are. I finished the movie and I still didn’t get what these added to the movie. The answer is that it didn’t and I question why they thought it was a great idea.

The second flaw I have got to say is that this movie is defined as a “romantic comedy” and there are a lot of great romantic moments but honestly no moments that made me laugh out loud. They do a fair amount of “The Lonely Island” raunchy sex jokes but even then I still didn’t find it funny. I got a couple of chuckles in some moments but none stuck out as memorable in the comedy department.

Overall, it is a surprisingly very good movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it but not to the extent of how everyone in the media felt about the movie. The most important aspect in a romance movie is to get the audience to root for the main couple and this movie succeeds in this case.  The movie is a great time if you ignore the first 10 minutes and you will no doubt come out enjoying it.


 

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