Well now, this was one of the best surprises I’ve seen this year. Everyone knows that 2020 has basically been a bust for new movies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and while there have still been plenty of smaller releases on streaming services, I definitely haven’t seen as many movies this year that I’ve loved as I have in previous years. That’s why I was delightfully surprised when I watched Palm Springs, a new movie on Hulu. This ended up being one of my favorite movies of 2020 so far, which I really wasn’t expecting.

By this point, most people have probably at least heard of Groundhog Day, a Bill Murray movie from the 90s where he has to repeat the same day over and over again. This “infinite time loop” idea has almost become its own sub-genre now by this point, with the Groundhog Day scenario being translated into different genres, like an action movie version of it with Edge of Tomorrow, or a horror movie version of it with Happy Death Day. Palm Springs takes this idea and translates it into a romantic comedy version.

Basically, by the start of the movie, our main character Nyles has found himself stuck in an infinite time loop for a while now. He has been repeating the same day of having to attend a wedding with his cheating girlfriend for a long time now, and he’s kind of just doing whatever he wants at this point. On the day that we start with in the movie, he hooks up with the bride’s sister, Sarah, and ends up accidentally getting her stuck in the time loop with him.

It seems so simple, and yet having a second person stuck in the loop with you is such a clever take on the Groundhog Day idea. There’s always the trope in these movies of the protagonist explaining that they’re stuck in a time loop to another character, only to have them not have experienced the conversation the next day. This ends up being very isolating for the protagonist, and so it’s a genius scenario to have someone else going through the same hell with you. I never thought this idea could work so well for this concept, but Palm Springs nails it.

Honestly, I expected to like Palm Springs, but I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. I thought it really made the most of its premise, and aside from that it’s just a lot of fun. I think that this is the best real acting performance I’ve ever seen from Andy Samberg, and the chemistry between him and his co-star Cristin Milioti is really fantastic. I think the script is smart enough that it could still be really good with different actors, but the ones that we did get made the movie even better. This is a movie that I think everyone should take a chance on, especially considering the dearth of new movies we’ve had this year. It’s easily one of the best movies I’ve seen so far in 2020, and it surprised the hell out of me.

4.5/5