Part of the fun of Palm Springs is all the surprises that lie in wait, so I won't spoil the whole game. But, suffice to say, Palm Springs is the tale of two people, Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah (Cristin Milioti), who run into each other at a wedding for Sarah's sister. As the night winds down, they run off to go have sex away from everybody else and then engage in a series of events that ensure they're not leaving this wedding. They're stuck on this wedding day forever now, Groundhog Day-style. It's a situation that plays into their individual tendencies not to care about others, though there's plenty of complications in store.
Personally, the fact that Palm Springs is already such a well-shot movie is enough to make me wanna recommend it. I've made it no secret how much I detest visually forgettable comedies, the ones that are barely shot any better than your average multi-camera sitcom. Palm Springs does not fall into that category at all. The movie looks crisp as can be, it's actually got interesting costume design choices (I love how Nyles' outfit contrasts with everybody else's wedding attire). Best of all, director Max Barbakow (making a great directorial debut here) shows a gift for how to visually execute absurdist gags. Such execution is based around the fact that he doesn't treat these gags as all that weird in terms of camerawork.
Rather than incorporating "zany" frantic camerawork that pokes you in the ribs over how ludicrous certain jokes are, Barbakow's directing captures the most ridiculous jokes in Palm Springs with a matter-of-fact quality. Static wide or medium shots are used to frame comedic chaos while aspects of the movie, like a montage of one supporting character torturing somebody, are shot like something from an actual thriller rather than a comedy starring the Dick In a Box guy. Such recurring juxtaposition only makes the most bizarre gags of Palm Springs, like an impending murder in a recycle bin or an airplane crashing into the ground, all the more humorous. Plus, this creative choice on the part of Barbakow's makes for a great extension of how the two leads of Palm Springs treat their new existence.
Nyles and Sarah go with the flow when the unexplainable happens, why shouldn't the camerawork of Palm Springs follow suit? The distinct perspectives of these two characters isn't just reinforced by the directing in Palm Springs, it's also well-realized through the screenplay by Andy Siara. Though his script is following in the footsteps of numerous other time-loop tales, Siara shows a clever eye for originality. Rather than just leaning on an endless succession of Groundhog Day homages, Siara constantly explores new exciting ground for this particular time-loop story. Additionally, the way he embraces totally strange plot developments is commendable. Siara doesn't get bogged down in exposition or explanations, he just lets the weirdness of Palm Springs inform some of its most humorous sequences.
Siara's screenplay hands off two well-developed characters for the lead performers of Palm Springs to handle and neither one of them disappoints. It's nifty to see Andy Samberg, who so often plays upbeat dreamers, portraying someone with so much believable angst weighing down his soul. It's a part he handles quite well and he also has great chemistry with Cristin Milioti. In her first feature film role, Milioti just aces her performance as Sarah, particularly whenever she gets to display an immense level of chaotic energy. Her endearing and rough-around-the-edges lead turn in Palm Springs is so much fun to watch. It's the kind of excellent performance that can live up to film festival hype and the same can be said for Palm Springs as a movie.
(Oh, couldn't find a place in the body of this review to mention it, but J.K. Simmons is great in this too.)
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