Palm Springs

Taking Groundhog Day's "trapped in a time-loop" premise and milking it for every last drop of fun, first-time feature director Max Barbakow delivers an energetic romcom with a satisfyingly cynical edge. As the film opens, Nyles (Andy Samberg) has been stuck reliving the same day for some time, before Sarah (Cristin Milioti) unwittingly joins him in this exasperating predicament. She's acting as maid of honour for her sister Tala (Camila Mendes), whose desert wedding Nyles is also attending, with the dangerously unhinged Roy (JK Simmons) also among the guests. Sporting an ironically bright, Californian colour scheme, Palm Springs revels in the dementedness of the concept and neatly exploits its dark potential, with Andy Siara's script containing plenty of twisted humour. Strikingly similar to The Map of Tiny Perfect Things released the same year, it's nevertheless idiosyncratic enough to stand apart, and an affable Samberg and a deadpan Milioti are great value as two people with absolutely nothing to lose. In the midst of all the madness, their romance struggles to fully fly, but the film's fusion of invention and anarchy is pretty irresistible.