Palm Springs
Neon | Release Date (Streaming): July 10, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 48 Critic Reviews
Positive:
45
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireNick de SemlyenApr 7, 2021
It’s taken a long time getting here from across the Pond, but some things are worth waiting for. A wonderful, witty and weird spin on an old favourite, which seems destined to become a classic itself. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 9, 2020
Pain is a necessary ingredient in any successful comedy. The trick, which Barbakow and Siara seem to have mastered on their very first try, is to find the misery of the right kind and intensity, to imply tears that match the laughter. Read full review
100
UproxxVince ManciniJul 8, 2020
Palm Springs is the perfect kind of art-comedy. It comes on like a brilliantly silly little lark and eventually lands on you like a ton of bricks. Read full review
100
The PlaylistRobert DanielsJan 28, 2020
Palm Springs adds meaning to the seeming meaninglessness of life, with infectious fun and introspective pleasure to boot. Read full review
95
Film ThreatBobby LePireJul 14, 2020
It’s assuredly directed with a consistent visual tone, and the cast is absolutely dynamite, especially Samberg and Milioti, who have never been better. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJul 9, 2020
For a movie this fleet and funny (it’s a snap at 90 minutes), Palm Springs is surprisingly ripe for metaphorical plucking. Read full review
90
TimeStephanie ZacharekJul 9, 2020
The movie is so light on its feet that it never feels forced or didactic, even when it asks us to confront piercing truths about love and the elusive meaning of happiness. Read full review
90
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 8, 2020
Palm Springs suggests that repetition can kill sex drives, marriages, and even the will to live. Yet it still leaves you laughing gratefully at the resilience of love. Read full review
90
SlashfilmBen PearsonJan 30, 2020
A sharp, laugh out loud crowd-pleaser, Palm Springs could end up being the funniest film of 2020. But it’s not a mindless comedy. It tackles some profound topics amid the laughs, interrogating the sustainability of long-term relationships and exploring how a seemingly awful situation might be aided by a change in perspective. Read full review
90
UproxxMike RyanJan 29, 2020
Samberg and Milioti are great together. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleSelome HailuJul 9, 2020
It upholds deep respect for everything that makes a rom-com great: unabashed joy. Read full review
88
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJul 16, 2020
Samberg is predictably charming and funny here. But it’s Milioti, who may be best known at this point as “The Mother” from “How I Met Your Mother” or “that girl who was in that one ‘Black Mirror’ episode,” who is the big revelation, finally getting the spotlight which has been a long time coming. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 10, 2020
What makes the movie fly are the interlocking energies of its leading players, Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJul 10, 2020
With all the humor, though, the film strikes an unexpectedly tender almost bittersweet chord, the humor shadowed by sorrow, loneliness, helplessness. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 9, 2020
The formula has rarely been mined to such resounding success. This is one of the funniest movies of the year AND one of the most romantic movies as well. Read full review
88
ObserverOliver JonesJul 9, 2020
They have made a film absent of time that could not possibly be more of the moment. Read full review
88
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJul 8, 2020
Perhaps the sharpest casting is J.K. Simmons as a gruff wedding guest named Roy, who got trapped in the time-loop earlier after a misguided cocaine binge with Nyles. He pops up occasionally to hunt Nyles with a bow and arrow or a shotgun to seek revenge. You will cherish the 65-year-old Oscar winner’s interpretation of being high on coke. Read full review
85
The AtlanticDavid SimsJul 10, 2020
In Palm Springs, the journey the central characters go on isn’t just about trying to escape the loop—it’s about understanding that no matter how tedious life might seem, there are always ways to find joy in living it. Read full review
83
Original-CinKaren GordonFeb 16, 2021
Sure, there are some odd turns in the movie that I’m still trying to work out, but that didn’t diminish the fun. Even more, to the point in this COVID era, is how this theme of being trapped also speaks to anxiety, depression and that feeling that no matter what you do, you can’t escape yourself. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJul 8, 2020
At its core, the movie is too in love with love — or at least its messy, time-jumping ideal of it — for that kind of true discomfort comedy. That makes it less brave, maybe, but in this moment we're living in, who could begrudge a happy ending? Read full review
83
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonFeb 1, 2020
The most important thing is that it’s funny and charming in all the right ways, a slight but sweet meditation on the viability of long-term relationships. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jan 29, 2020
It turns out to be something kind of special in its own right: a modern rom-com that’s funny and inventive and sweet and totally mainstream and a little deranged all at once. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 28, 2020
The overarching plot of Palm Springs isn’t especially novel, but each scene is just sweet, funny, and demented enough to feel like a little surprise. Read full review
83
The Film StageJake Kring-SchreifelsJan 28, 2020
The script, from Andy Siara, never loses momentum. Read full review
82
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpJul 9, 2020
Using Barbakow’s direction and Andy Siara’s script as filters, Palm Springs presents viewers with a blend of soft science fiction, raucous punchlines, and human drama, the last of these encompassing self-loathing, grief, love and high anxiety. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 10, 2021
Surface similarities to Groundhog Day are relegated to background noise, thanks to the crisp writing and the nihilistic bite of the humour. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeApr 9, 2021
We end up with a philosophical comedy that is not afraid to aim the odd joke below the belt or, as resolution looms, to give in to sentimentality. It’s a little bit Capra. It’s also a little bit Beckett. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinApr 8, 2021
Via breezy metaphysical farce, Palm Springs identifies this very recognisable strain of millennial malaise, before skewering it with merciless accuracy. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 8, 2021
It delivers some much-needed laughs. Read full review
80
The VergeJoshua RiveraAug 7, 2020
While Palm Springs is a fun rom-com, it’s a story haunted by the idea that we’d secretly be tempted by a world where nothing really matters, to absolve ourselves of responsibility. Read full review
80
IGNMatt FowlerJul 21, 2020
It plays into the dystopian fantasy of being able to reinvent yourself in a lawless world, delivering a clever tale about what it takes for someone who's not a part of existence to want to reengage with life. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 13, 2020
What does make this movie stand out is the presence of Cristin Milioti, a paragon of goofiness and grace. Read full review
80
ScreenCrushMatt SingerJul 8, 2020
The film offers at least one tangible piece of advice for dealing with this impossible, seemingly endless time: Keep your sense of humor about you. Palm Springs, which is billed as a “Lonely Island Production,” is consistently funny, from Samberg’s IDGAF attitude, to Milioti’s initial fury at her entrapment, to a deep roster of comic talents who bring hilarious variations to the numerous riffs through the same day. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 8, 2020
It’s dark, nihilistic, funny and ultimately sweet and hopeful, and thus so inadvertently perfect for people stuck at home practicing pandemic avoidance that you kind of have to love it a little. Read full review
80
TheWrapSteve PondJul 8, 2020
The setup is durable, as “Russian Doll” has most recently proven, but Barbakow, Samberg, Milioti and writer Andy Siara find a freshness in the way they play with it and the way they mess with the romantic comedy tropes that are all but inevitable when you stick a couple together like this movie does. Read full review
80
Screen RantMolly FreemanJul 8, 2020
Along with a sharp sense of humor and compelling performances, Palm Springs delivers an absolutely charming rom-com with a fun sci-fi twist. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreJul 7, 2020
Palm Springs would have been a scream and likely a word-of-mouth hit in theaters, but maybe there’s something fitting about its going straight to streaming in the middle of a pandemic. What is quarantine, anyway, if not waking up and going through the same routine over and over without end? Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 28, 2020
It’s an irreverent take on a form where earlier iterations were obliged to take themselves seriously. And somehow that liberates what felt like a slick but ironic riff on a tired genre to do something sincere. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 28, 2020
Pointlessness, isolation and the guarantee that no one will ever understand your plight may not sound like the makings of a laugh-filled heartwarmer, but in the hands of Barbakow and screenwriter Andy Siara, it is. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzDec 17, 2020
While Barbakow and writer Andy Siara don’t exactly reinvent the ever-spinning wheel here, they do add enough of a winsome, layered charm that Palm Springs feels like a vacation you actually might want to extend forevermore. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 17, 2020
While Palm Springs doesn’t stray too far from the idea introduced by "Groundhog Day," it’s the first derivative film to be more deserving of a commendation than derision. Or, to put another way, it feels more like an homage than a rip-off. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJul 16, 2020
Palm Springs is fun, but long live the theatrical experience. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 7, 2020
An unusual and imaginative romantic comedy that takes the central idea of “Groundhog Day” and builds on it. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiJul 1, 2020
The film smuggles some surprisingly bleak existential questioning inside a brightly comedic vehicle. Read full review
70
VoxAlissa WilkinsonJan 29, 2020
Zinging between humor and poignance with a lot of charm, it achieves in its most insightful moments what comedy does best: Let us laugh at the world a little, by way of learning something about ourselves. Read full review
60
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsAug 6, 2020
Palm Springs endeared me to Samberg and Milioti quite a bit, and that's not nothing. The movie, though, doesn't amount to much. Read full review
60
CNNBrian LowryJul 10, 2020
The film turns out to be a fun but thin construct, fostering a sense of itchiness to see how and if it's going to pay off. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJul 8, 2020
It’s a goofy, drunken scrap of escapism and while the romantic comedy is not fully back, despite think pieces assuring us that it is, Palm Springs energetically reminds us, yet again, that it’s never really going away. Read full review
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