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Palm Springs – 2020 Barbakow
- Andy Samberg has been making everybody laugh for ten to fifteen years- but 2020’s Palm Springs, a take on 1993’s masterful Groundhog Day, is the best thing he’s been a part of
- It isn’t just Samberg who impresses here (he can make the sound of opening a beer funny), this is the feature debut for Max Barbakow, Cristin Milioti is hilarious (who plays Sarah here- she’s DiCaprio’s first wife in Wolf of Wall Street), and Andy Siara’s screenplay is both clever in structure and well-written in scene (particularly some of the speeches several characters are given).
- Standouts include Samberg’s perfectly choreographed dance—this is physical Chaplin or Jim Carrey material actually more than Adam Sandler or Bill Murray
- Siara’s screenplay plays upon Ramis’ work and films like Back to the Future– “infinite time loop situations” and that’s enough for us. Milioti’s character as the newcomer to the time loop is a perfect way to be the audience surrogate
- Great use of the supporting talents of JK Simmons
- A reoccurring shot here is when Samberg’s character wakes up and the camera is positioned through the leg of his girlfriend—a riff on The Graduate and that famous shot
- Formally repeated use of the overhead shot in the pool
- Leonard Cohen song and other drops that are well curated
- Recommend but not in the top 10 of 2020
Drake2021-03-29T19:28:37+00:00
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Glad to see this make the archives. It was very popular for a time during quarantine, perhaps because of the “trapped” nature of the story. Its exposition doesn’t feel the need to dwell on explaining the premise Groundhog Day established thirty years ago. It just begins with that concept and runs with it in a new direction. A fun, breezy 90 minutes.
Have you seen The Nest(2020) starring Jude Law?
@Malith- I have not yet- I’m hoping to get to it in April or May at the very latest.