Palm Springs (2020)

Directed by: Max Barbakow | 90 minutes | comedy, fantasy | Actors: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, JK Simmons, Peter Gallagher, Meredith Hagner, Camila Mendes, Tyler Hoechlin, Chris Pang, Jacqueline Obradors, June Squibb, Tongayi Chirisa, Dale Dickey, Conner O’Malley, Jena Friedman, Brian Duffy, Martin Kildare

How can we best describe ‘Palm Springs’? A mix of ‘Groundhog Day’ and ‘American Pie’ perhaps? The image of the jerking adolescent in a Hawaiian shirt looks somewhat anachronistic, while the girlfriend is combing her hair and arguing with the masturbator on duty. We’re not in the nineties anymore, are we? Then again we see jerk Nyles running around naked in Joshua Tree National Park while being shot at with a crossbow. It’s not entirely unfunny, because it’s well performed by Samberg (‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’) and the likes.

The idea is this: Two guests at a Palm Springs wedding (Samberg and Milioti) experience a different version of the same day over and over again. It is a romantic running gag, both literally and figuratively. Absurdistically approached, so the credibility is mainly in the form. That works fine. Both young lovers will keep you busy, although Milioti (‘Fargo’) could use a little more ‘deadpan’. Her neurotic role, on the other hand, is also funny; sexist clichés can still be used in comedies, it turns out.

Fortunately, otherwise the humor also kills in the ultra-hygienic debate of the sexes, and then the woman with the carpet beater has won over her cross-scratching congener (ahem). And we shouldn’t have that, then we men will be lonely again watching porn between the paprika chips. The performance here is pretty good. For example, ‘Palm Springs’ pokes fun at the running gag itself. See for yourself in that regard. It is superficial entertainment. But: ‘Forever and Ever’ by Demis Roussos as the title song, then you have done your homework well as a filmmaker. The most horrible song of all time, your mother-in-law would spontaneously dissolve.