Palm Springs (2020, Max Barbakow) (Patreon)

55/100

Very large spoilers indeed.

Neither uproariously funny nor particularly inventive, but I kept watching anyway—partly because Milioti and Samberg make an appealing duo (especially during their goofy fuck-it phase, when they start pranking the wedding guests and performing random dance routines), but mostly out of basic narrative curiosity. It's clear quite early on that both Nyles and Sarah are concealing something significant, and it seemed likely to me that at least one of those revelations would turn Palm Springs into something more than a slightly tweaked Groundhog Day, since "Imagine, if you will, that Andie MacDowell had also been stuck in the time loop" isn't exactly a what-if? for the ages. Turns out that's pretty much all there is, though. The big secrets involve regret about past adventures in casual fornication—she wakes up every morning in her sister's fiancé's bed; he'd previously been using her as his regular memory-hole fling—and we eventually get a comparatively wan variation on Phil Connors' redemption, with Sarah deciding to break free of her bad habits and Nyles finally overcoming his fear of returning to a world in which his actions have consequences. Even the potentially interesting wrinkle represented by J.K. Simmons' vengeful out-of-towner ultimately serves a soggy purpose. Groundhog Day earns its sentiment via Phil's sheer awfulness—he's so damaged that only a zillion iterations can effect genuine personal growth—whereas Palm Springs dares to suggest that floating lazily in a stranger's swimming pool is only truly meaningful if you can be ordered out of it. Some decent jokes along the way, and I was never bored or even actively irritated (decidedly not true of Russian Doll, which I bailed on after four episodes), but I really should trust my W/O instinct. As much as I love Groundhog Day, it's always bummed me out that Harold Ramis reconceived Danny Rubin's first act, which reportedly kicked off with Phil already very deep in the loop (and hence apparently superhuman); that Palm Springs resuscitates this terrific idea yet has virtually no fun with it—just some amusing Samberg dance moves, really—should have tipped me that the film as a whole would be nothing special.