Palm Springs

For a film that rips its premise off the ultimate time loop movie, "Groundhog Day," "Palm Springs" is surprisingly unpredictable and exceedingly charming. It's got an anarchic anything goes vibe and a pair of vibrant actors, Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, who also happen to have a ton of chemistry together. It's a movie for our very troubled times and seems tailor made for a quarantined audience, where day bleeds into day and the repetition of the weekly grind is sending many of us to the loony bin. The sweet message at the center of this otherwise naughty film is that it's not the what we do that keeps us happy but rather the who we do it with. It's all about appreciating the little things that make life worth living moment to moment rather than focusing all of our energies on the big things that we chase at the risk of letting peace and contentment pass us right on by.

This message is most effectively encapsulated in the character played by J.K. Simmons, who spends the first half of the movie trying to kill Andy Samberg and then has a great scene toward the end that makes the most mundane situation imaginable seem like a little piece of heaven. How I can relate to that right now.....

Grade: A-

... but re-dimensioned in such a way that the films it copies will look a little less appealing next time it comes to replaying them - whether it be in the past, the present or the future.

I am not sure that time loop movies should be an entire movie genre. I am not sure that we needed another version of Groundhog's Day. I am not sure this movie should have attempted to explain the quantum physics involved in its plot. But I am 100% sure that I enjoyed watching it. I was genuinely amused, surprised, and touched thanks to some pretty great writing and performances. I walked in thinking the movie should not exist, and I walked away glad that it happened anyway. That's a pretty big compliment.

It's rare to get a time loop film that is not repetitive, but full of fresh scenes from beginning to the end. The story is fun and it's enjoyable to watch.

The plot is about a man and a woman falling in love while living the same day over and over again, but really- it's about depression and loneliness in the modern age.. the feeling you can't escape who you are, and the love that can help you through it. Andy Samberg was never better: sad but hopeful, depressed but ok with it.. I loved this movie and its message about being alone and together..