Palm Springs (2020)

Max Barbakow: Palm Springs (US 2020), starring Cristin Milioti (Sarah) and Andy Samberg (Nyles).

Palm Springs / Palm Springs.
    US 2020 © PS Film Production. Hulu presents a Hulu original. PC: Limelight Productions and Sun Entertainment present – A Party Over Here production – a Limelight Production. P: Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Becky Sloviter, Jorma Taccone. P: Dylan Sellers, Chris Parker. EX: Alex Dong, Gabriel Revilla Lugo.
    D: Max Barbakow. SC: Andy Siara. DP: Quyen "Q" Tran – camera: Arri Alexa Mini – source format: CFast 2.0 ProRes 4:4:4 (3.2K) – colour – 2.39:1 – release format: D-Cinema. PD: Jason Kisvarday. AD: Tim Ford. Set dec: Kelsi Ephraim. Cost: Colin Wilkes. Makeup: Galaxy San Juan. Hair: Kimberly Spiteri. SFX: Tom Ceglia. VFX: Crafty Apes. M: Matthew Compton. Music supervisor: Robin Urdang. Soundtrack listing: see beyond the jump break. S: Jon Wakeham, Sean McCormack. ED: Matthew Friedman, Andrew Dickler. Casting: Allison Jones.
    C: Andy Samberg (Nyles), Cristin Milioti (Sarah), J. K. Simmons (Roy), Peter Gallagher (Howard), Meredith Hagner (Misty), Camila Mendes (Tala), Tyler Hoechlin (Abe), Chris Pang (Trevor), Jacqueline Obradors (Pia), Tongayi Chirisa (Jerry), Dale Dickey (Darla), Conner O'Malley (Randy), Jena Friedman (Daisy the Bartender).
    Loc: California (Santa Clarita, Palmdale).
    87 min
    Festival premiere: 26 Jan 2020 Sundance Film Festival
    Hulu online premiere: 10 July 2020
    Finnish premiere: 27 Nov 2020 – released by Cinema Mondo with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Iira Tuominen / Sophia Beckman.
    NB. After the premiere weekend, Helsinki cinemas closed on 30 Nov due to the corona emergency, but screenings continued in selected cities.
    Corona emergency security: max 20 capacity, face masks, distancing, hand hygiene.
    Viewed at Finnkino Strand 2, Lappeenranta, 27 Dec 2020.

AA: With Tenet, Palm Springs belongs to the high profile "time plays" of the year 2020. The film-makers, director Max Barbakow and screenwriter Andy Siara, are aware of their concept's affinity with Groundhog Day, but distance from it in significant ways.

"Live Like There's No Tomorrow" is the advertizing tagline, and it sums up saga's duality. The eternal wedding in Palm Springs is a vision of paradise, marred by endless repetition and ever-changing deceptions and disappointments during the celebration weekend.

Unlike Groundhog Day, this is not a tale of a comeuppance of a cynical and obnoxious protagonist. It's about being stuck into an endless present from which even death offers no escape. It may evoke reflections about an age where the ideal is to live an eternal youth, and where mankind is, indeed, living like there is no tomorrow.

Palm Springs has been studied as belonging to the category of time loop movies, but it resonates also with philosophical or surrealist tales of "no escape". In Jean-Paul Sartre's Huis clos (No Exit) the place in which we find ourselves is not Paradise but Hell. In Luis Buñuel's El ángel exterminador there is no end to a lavish dinner party.

Cinema itself is an art of the time play, where a real-time event can be endlessly repeated, where different time periods can be mixed in parallel montage, and where time can be manipulated via slow motion, time lapse, or blitz cutting.

The evolution of the cinema coincided with the revelations of the theory of general relativity and quantum mechanics. In art, writers like Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time) and James Joyce displayed parallel insight. Affinities were obvious to Henri Bergson's concepts of durée and the clock time, Bergson himself reacting to Zeno, and inspiring Deleuze.

Einstein also inspired J. W. Dunne's influential work An Experiment with Time, a work more valid as poetry than science. Dunne in turn inspired J. B. Priestley's time plays, but also H. G. Wells, Jorge Luis Borges, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and James Hilton, whose Random Harvest is also relevant to the WWI shell shock experience. "The end of an era" experience was a key reason to the newly topical Shakespearean feeling of "a time out of joint" (Hamlet's original utterance can be understood as a definition of Renaissance).

The time loop theme also connects to the ancient tradition of the eternal return, the cyclical vision of existence, familiar from Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Pythagoreanism, Stoicism and the philosophy of Nietzsche. The infinite loop, the wheel of time, the endless knot and the mandala are expressions of this. Of 20th century writers, Hesse and Camus (The Myth of Sisyphus) were fascinated by the theme.

I seem to have evaded discussing Max Barbakow and Andy Siara's movie, but perhaps it has succeeded in tempting me to an infinite loop in a wheel of time, discussing an eternal return. The protagonists are unusual. As interpreted by Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, they are irritating and hard to relate to. Perhaps this is an act of Entfremdung. We are not meant to identify with them, but we are welcomed to witty dialogue and chains of associations that are both topical and eternal.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK:BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK:

PALM SPRINGS

Synopsis

When carefree Nyles (Andy Samberg) and reluctant maid of honor Sarah (Cristin Milioti) have a chance  encounter  at  a  Palm Springs wedding, things get complicated when they find themselves unable to escape the venue, themselves, and each other.

PALM SPRINGS

Weddings,
love,
family,
exes,
heartbreak,
a whole lot of pain and suffering,
a fair amount of joy,
babies,
beers,
burritos,
death,
war,
violence,
and finally—
sex, drugs, and a big rock with a hole in it.

Most of life can be boiled down to these words.
So can “Palm Springs.”

— The Filmmakers

Soundtrack Credits
 
Forever and Ever
Written by Stelios Vlavianos (as Stylianos Vlavianos) and Alec Constandinos (as Robert Costadinos)
Performed by Demis Roussos
Courtesy of Universal Music B.V.
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

  August 10
Written by Laura Lee Manders and Mark Speer
Performed by Khruangbin
Courtesy of Dead Oceans

  Turn It On
Written by Ahmed D'Ala and Mauikai Gold
Performed by Chester Moore II
Courtesy of The Song Pimp, Inc.

  Megatron Man
Written by Patrick Cowley
Performed by Patrick Cowley
Courtesy of Unidisc Music
By arrangement with Foreman Bros. Recording

  A Lover's Concerto
Written by Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer
Performed by SRM
Published by Screen Gems-Emi Music Inc.
Courtesy of mVibe.com

  Man Stupid Being
Written by S.E. "Rogie" Rogers
Performed by S.E. "Rogie" Rogers
Courtesy of ROGEE

  Here and Now
Written by Alan Power
Performed by Alan Power
Courtesy of Alan Power

  No Other
Written by Gene Clark
Performed by Gene Clark
Courtesy of 4AD
By arrangement with Beggars Group Media Limited

  One Hot Afternoon
Written by Patrick Cowley
Performed by Patrick Cowley
Courtesy of Dark Entries Records

  Turn It On
Written by James Frank Bacchi
Performed by Max Boogie Overdrive
Courtesy of D2 Music

  Cantina
Written by Danny Amis (as Daniel Amis), Pete Curry, Eddie Angel (as Edward Heeran) and Jimmy Lester (as James Lester)
Performed by Los Straitjackets
Courtesy of Fresh Baked Music

  Like The Weather
Written by Natalie Merchant
Performed by 10,000 Maniacs
Courtesy of Elektra Entertainment Group
By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

  Let's Do It
Written by Babak Sepahbodi and Kaye James
Performed by i-junk
Courtesy of Crucial Music Corporation

  Sink
Written by Bianca Gisselle and Ben Darwish
Performed by Bianca Gisselle
Courtesy of Bianca Gisselle

  One More Lonely Night
Written by Terry Devine-King and Steve Levine
Performed by Terry Devine-King and Steve Levine
Courtesy of Audio Network

  El Palomito
Written by Lupe Tijerina (as Guadalupe Pena Tijerina)
Performed by Los Cadetes de Linares
Courtesy of Zamic Records

  Saturday Night Blues
Written by Benjamin McCullough, Luke Schneider, Zach Martin, Seth Murray, and Wesley Traylor
Performed by Natural Child
Courtesy of Rollo Grady Music

  Barracuda
Written by John Cale (as John Davies Cale)
Performed by John Cale
Courtesy of Islands Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

  Ulu Palakua
Written by John Pi'iliani Watkins
Performed by Iwalani Kahalewai
Courtesy of Surfside Hawaii Inc dba Lehua Records
By arrangement with Cord International

  A Lover's Concerto
Written by Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer
Performed by Peter Gallagher and Jacqueline Obradors
Published by Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc.
Courtesy of Sybersound Records
By arrangement with Covered Records, Inc.

  The Brazilian
Written by Tony Banks (as Anthony George Banks), Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford (as Michael Rutherford)
Performed by Genesis
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

  You Know More Than I Know
Written by John Cale
Performed by John Cale
Courtesy of Island Records Ltd.
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

  In My Hour Of Darkness
Written by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris
Performed by Gram Parsons
Courtesy of Warner Records
By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

  The Partisan
(La Complainte du Partisan)
Music by Anna Marly
French lyrics by Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie
English lyrics by Hy Zaret
Performed by Leonard Cohen
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment

  Cloudbusting
Written by Kate Bush (as Catherine Bush)
Performed by Kate Bush
Courtesy of Warner Music UK Ltd
By arrangement with Warner Music Group

  When The Morning Comes
Written by Daryl Hall (as Daryl F Hall)
Performed by Daryl Hall & John Oates
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing Licensing

PLOT FROM WIKIPEDIA:

On November 9 in Palm Springs, Nyles wakes up next to his girlfriend Misty on the wedding day of Tala and Abe. At the reception, he delivers an impromptu speech, much to the relief of Tala's sister, Sarah, the drunk and unprepared maid-of-honor. Nyles and Sarah bond and, after discovering Misty cheating on Nyles, are about to have sex in the desert when Nyles is abruptly shot in the shoulder with an arrow by a mysterious man. Wounded, he crawls toward a mysterious light in a nearby cave, warning Sarah not to follow. Concerned for Nyles, Sarah follows him and is sucked into a vortex within the cave.

Sarah wakes up and is startled to discover that it is November 9 again. She confronts Nyles who explains that she has become stuck in the same time loop as him. Sarah unsuccessfully attempts many escape methods, such as driving back to Austin, attempting an act of selflessness, and committing suicide. Nyles and Sarah spend many days together, often relaxing in the pool of a nearby home whose occupants are away on vacation. Nyles reveals that the man who shot him is named Roy, a family man from Irvine, whom Nyles also trapped in the time loop after he and Roy met at the wedding and did drugs together. Nyles explains to Sarah that Roy blames him for being trapped in the time loop and occasionally comes to Palm Springs to hunt him for revenge.

After many loops, Nyles and Sarah camp out in the desert where they consume magic mushrooms and eventually have sex. The next day, it is revealed that Sarah has been waking up in Abe's room having spent the night of November 8 with him, and he advises her to leave before she is seen. A guilt-ridden Sarah refuses to talk to Nyles about their previous night, expressing that everything they do is meaningless. They are pulled over by a police officer who turns out to be Roy. Sarah rams into Roy with the police car, badly injuring him. After an argument, Nyles admits that he had sex with Sarah numerous times before she entered the time loop, something that he had lied about before. A disgusted Sarah runs in front of an oncoming truck, killing herself and restarting the day.

After the next reset, Nyles spends his days unsuccessfully searching for Sarah. He smells Sarah's perfume on Abe's pillow and realizes that Sarah and Abe had sex the night before the wedding. He confronts Abe during the wedding, and a fight breaks out between Nyles and Abe. Nyles travels to Irvine to talk to Roy, who has given up on hunting Nyles after Sarah hitting him with the car caused him to be kept awake in agony in the ICU. Roy explains that he lives in the perfect day forever with his loving family, but will never get to see his children grow up. Roy says that they should never speak again, and Nyles asks Roy to murder him one last time so he can reset.

Meanwhile, Sarah confronts Abe over their affair and both express their regret and remorse. Sarah then resolves to escape the time loop, spending many days in a diner studying quantum physics, general relativity, talking with professors, and finally coming to a solution. She tests her theory by sending a goat into the cave with explosives. In the next reset, the goat has disappeared. Sarah wakes Nyles up and tells him she believes she knows how to escape the time loop by blowing themselves up in the cave before they restart the day. Nyles admits he loves Sarah but wants to stay in the time loop with her forever. She leaves him in the room alone, and a frustrated Nyles breaks up with Misty.

Sarah attends the wedding, gives a heartfelt speech for Tala, makes a phone call, and goes to the cave with explosives. Drinking alone in a bar, Nyles has a change of heart, decides to leave with her and rushes to the cave, professing he would rather die with her than remain in the loop alone. Sarah reciprocates his feelings, and they kiss while she presses the detonator. Nyles and Sarah wake up, again lounging in the vacant pool when the home owners show up, revealing it is November 10 and the plan worked.

In a mid-credits scene, Roy approaches Nyles at the wedding, asking about Sarah's plan to escape the loop (from her phone call). When Nyles does not recognize Roy, he realizes the plan has worked and smiles.