I stumbled on Andy Samberg and The Lonely Island guys years before Andy secured a position on Saturday Night Live. Years before YouTube was a household name, filmmakers and comedians took to uploading videos on any platform they could, from Dan Harmon’s Channel 101, to YouTube, to their own websites. The first sketch I ever saw does not actually exist on the official Lonely Island YouTube channel, but can easily be found uploaded by others. It was a very simple parody on sitcoms and cop shows of the preceding decade. This sketch in particular was called “Perfecto!” and I can remember how my friends and I could not get enough of that video. Every time Andy would end the mini episode with his perfecto catchphrase, we would laugh so hard that we were crying. The production quality was absolutely horrible, but to be fair, in the early 2000s that’s kind of where things were with cameras that one could buy at an electronics store. If you look at my own earliest YouTube uploads you will see much of the same quality because that was what we had access to when on a modest budget during those years. Despite the low production quality, with sketches like “Perfecto!” you could see that the ideas and comedy chops that this crew had were top notch. The Lonely Island YouTube uploads quickly gained traction shortly thereafter and the rest is history. They because comedy juggernauts with credits for TV and film. I guess this is the part where I should give you my disclaimer, that this is not a puff piece. I am not being paid to be nice, this is not some kind of native advertising or clickbait, and I do not personally know any of The Lonely Island guys despite being in the same industry. No, in fact I say this as one who might be considered as jealous because none of the comedy sketches I’ve uploaded to YouTube have ever struck a chord like the sketches these guys put out, high budget or low. Kudos to them and all of their success.
Right off the bat this is not a conventional SNL offshoot where a character from the show is expanded (Coneheads, Wayne’s World), nor is it an SNL related tangent film where the on-screen cast was plucked from the SNL cast members who have chemistry (Tommy Boy, Groundhog Day). In fact other than the fact that there is a time loop, nothing else of this film resembles Groundhog Day.
First off, and this is not much of a spoiler if you’ve already watched the trailer, Andy’s character is not alone in this time loop. That alone is a very far departure. Second, good deeds and changing who you are for the better does not kick start time to run its course. Third, while Groundhog Day has a lot of alcohol drinking and gluttony, the number of drinks that are had and beer cans opened in Palm Springs puts Groundhog Day to shame. Fourth and finally, even though Bill Murray’s character starts out as a dick who throughout the film (even when he is in a romantic situation) comes off as creepy, in Palm Springs every single character on screen is the creep in their own special way. By the end, you love to hate them all.
Shooting the film looked like it was a blast, the number of high-quality cameos are amazing, and even though this is typical Andy Samberg territory (lots of sex and sexual innuendos as well as crude’n’rude humor you’d expect on an early Adam Sandler film or on whatever is airing at 2am on Adult Swim), the film does not feel trapped inside that rigid cage.
It has been proven time and time again that Andy Samberg is well adept to taking on a lead character role, but his co-star Cristin Milioti knocked a home run. Not only was she the counter balance to Andy in terms of character tone and comedy style, but the chemistry that the two of them have together—whether they are hating on or loving on each other—is absolutely magical.
Props to the writing department who delivered a fantastic story with just enough mystery and just enough twists and turns to make this an absolute delight.
Hi fives to the production designers on the film for creating Palm Springs without recreating Palm Springs.
I also want to give a shout out to the camera department, and the cinematographer. The film is absolutely beautiful, from lighting to color, and a superb shooting style. (The reason I dislike watching Andy’s television show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, is because of the pseudo-documentary style shooting where the cameraman uses a zoom lens and is constantly zooming in or zooming out of someone’s reaction shot. While those kinds of camera techniques are employed in documentaries and mockumentaries like The Office and Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine over-uses them to the point where almost every other shot is a zoom. I once counted 13 zooms in a single conversation on the show. Yeesh. It’s enough to make it so that all I think about is the zooms and I have no idea what I am supposed to be paying attention to. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to note that this film did not employ similar techniques.)
All in all, Palm Springs is a heartwarming comedy that is chock-full of sex, blood, and constant alcohol consumption.
