That was a grammatical nightmare

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Films of 2021

#24 : Palm Springs

Ingenious Groundhog-Day style romance starring Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti as two wedding guests who get stuck in a time loop that they can’t seem to escape from.

The first film on the list I've seen - which has happened much earlier than last year when we had to wait until #2!  And I really enjoyed this - it's a clever and funny film with two cracking lead performances, which I'm going to watch again to remind myself about (although I'm currently struggling to imagine how much I'm going to be able to tell you).

And no, I don't think there's a lot I can tell you - it is indeed a Groundhog-Day style film, but there's a bit more to it than that because more than one person has to do some learning.  It probably won't surprise you to learn that Nyles (Andy Samberg) is one of them, but he's joined on his journey (at times) by Sarah (Cristin Miloti).  It does have slightly more adult themes than Groundhog Day - Nyles both has sex and masturbates in the first minute of the film and ten minutes later he's about to have sex again (with a different member of the wedding party) when he gets shot by an arrow, which you're really not expecting.  And that's when things start to get weird - and I think that's all I can really tell you about things.

Rewatching it, it was less laugh-out-loud funny than I remembered it being but that really didn't matter because it's a great concept and is really watchable, driven by two great performances.  I was totally expecting it from Andy Samberg - best known here for Brooklyn 99, but if you get a chance to watch Popstar - Never Stop Never Stopping, then do so coz he's great in that (Wikipedia also tells me he plays the part of Casual Wanker #1 in The Watch - a career highpoint, undoubtedly).  However, I wasn't aware that I'd seen Cristin Miloti in anything, apparently she was in season 2 of Fargo but I can't claim to remember her from that - but she's really good in this and bounces off Andy really well.  JK Simmons is also worth a mention as Roy, who I unfortunately can't tell you anything about but it's a very well played bit part (and watch out for his mid-credits sequence).

This film is a lot less conspicuously trying to be a "great" film than most of the previous films on the list, but it's far more watchable as a result.  It also gives you a lot more to think about on a philosophical level than you might be expecting - just don't expect any answers!  To sum up, I think it's a great film and really enjoyed watching (and rewatching) it - if you've not seen it then you should certainly consider it.

At the time of writing, it's available to watch on Amazon Prime - and it's an Amazon film, so it'll be there for a bit.  Check it out, people!

#25 - An interesting, if not necessarily great, film
#23 - A good film which isn't really all that good