#andy siara

Palm Springs is a consistently funny, well-executed time-loop comedy full of unexpected depths. I’d seen it before, called it one of my favorite movies of 2020 but was a little hesitant when my coworkers suggested we watch it together. A movie this good I don’t want to watch over and over; I want to space out my viewings so I can forget the little details and re-capture some of the surprise I got the first time. My apprehension was unfounded, as it proved just as good on a rewatch. You don’t know what you’re getting into when you step into this movie.

On November 9, in Palm Springs, Sarah (Cristin Milioti) is shocked when Nyles (Andy Samberg) - a complete stranger - gives a touching speech at her sister’s wedding. While everyone celebrates, they connect privately. The next morning, Sarah wakes up. It’s still November 9th. Nyles has been stuck in a time loop. Every morning, he wakes up and it’s November 9th. Now, it's happening to Sarah too.

You expect a certain kind of humor from this concept. Nyles has done it all so he knows exactly what dance moves everyone will pull during the wedding reception - it makes him move on the floor like no one else could - and his time in the loop has made him so nonchalant about stuff like death it’s hilarious. That’s all well done but the big laughs come from his pairing with Sarah. She’s new to this, so he has to do his best to explain to her everything he already knows about this time loop, to no avail. It gets funnier when she accepts her fate and decides to make the best of it. With their life free of consequences, they pull elaborate pranks on the wedding guests, spring expertly coordinated and rehearsed dances “out of nowhere” and find endless ways to mess around and have a good time.

With excellent performances by Andy Samberg and Cristin Milloti - who have terrific chemistry, it’s easy to think this will be a nice, breezy rom-com that eventually gets solved when…. I dunno. The two declare their love for each other and break the time-loop spell or something? but there's more to the movie. Nyles has been stuck in the time loop for so long this is his life now. While everything may reset every day, it’s a vacation that will never end. He never has to work. He can do whatever he wants and never suffer the repercussions. Nothing he does matters, and he sees it as a good thing. Every morning he wakes up in a relationship with a woman who’s cheating on him (Meredith Hagner as Misty) but he doesn’t care. In fact, he likes it. If he ever wants sex, he knows what to say to her and on the days where he finds Misty intolerable, he’ll befriend someone else at the party. What’s there not to love about this perpetual Palm Springs? As he falls for Sarah, it feels as though things have just gotten better… but they aren’t, because she’s not like him. Breaking free from the time loop could be synonymous with that stage in a relationship where you move in together, meet each others’ parents, or get married. Moving forward is scary, it carries risks, but without those risks, what's the point? Sarah understands that the uncertain is what makes life living. The way our protagonists grow and the realizations they make along the way is often upsetting, which compliments the hilarity wonderfully. This is the kind of movie you can watch over and over and always find some new detail that makes you see just how well-written it is.

Palm Springs starts off as raunchy fun and then comes at you from the side with the heavy emotions. The blend is so smooth you look back and are surprised you didn’t see it coming. It packs so much into its story and characters you’ll be shocked it only lasted 90 minutes. This is a refreshingly romantic and uproarious movie - a new favorite for everyone who sees it. (September 16th, 2021)

The Resort (prod. Andy Siara).

Starring Cristin Milioti and William Jackson Harper as a listless couple celebrating their wedding anniversary at a resort in the Mayan Riviera, the mystery comedy series flirts with greater philosophical ideas about fate and destiny as they and some of the local staff try to uncover the unsolved disappearance of two vacationing American teens fifteen years earlier.

Palm Springs (2020)

Directed by Max Barbakow