Wait, Am I in Love With Andy Samberg After Watching ‘Palm Springs’?
If you, like me, are currently stuck in your home with no plans to go anywhere exciting anytime soon, let me introduce you to Hulu’s new movie Palm Springs. It hits the service this weekend, and it follows Andy Samberg’s Nyles as he relives the same day in Palm Springs over and over again because of a truly unfortunate time-warp situation. Not only does the movie take place in a beautiful setting, but the relationship between Nyles and Sarah (Cristin Milioti), the girl who gets stuck in the time warp with him, is so great that it’ll make you wonder why Andy hasn’t been a rom-com leading man all along.
My first memory of Andy is really thanks to one Justin Timberlake. It was way back in 2006, when someone showed me the now-iconic video for “Dick in a Box.” I would have been, like, 12, so I didn’t really watch SNL enough to know who Andy was. Justin, though, was of serious interest to me at the time. Watching the video, my pre-teen self couldn’t help but laugh hysterically. I thought, Damn, these Lonely Island people are hilarious! because obviously, a middle schooler would find the prospect of a song called “Dick in a Box” incredibly funny.
Many years passed without my thinking much about Andy. I mean, he existed, and I knew he was out there in the universe being funny, but I didn’t spend my free time wondering when I would next get to see him in a movie or TV show. I could have chosen to watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but from what I’ve heard about the way that show treats police, I’m glad I took a pass. But then I watched Palm Springs. While trying to escape his time-warp hell, Andy’s Nyles is equal parts hilarious and charming in that very-hard-to-achieve self-deprecating way. His version of a rom-com lead feels like someone you could actually meet in real life, not a guy who exists only on the pages of a rom-com script.
Sure, his character is kind of hopeless and doesn’t really believe life has any meaning, but that’s almost what makes it work. He’s cynical in a way that is very, very real. The fact that his character is able to laugh through that cynicism is part of the fun of watching this movie. And if we’re giving credit where credit is due, a lot of Andy’s charm comes from the chemistry he has with Cristin as Sarah. Their dynamic keeps you seriously invested for every minute of the movie.
Throughout the 90 minutes, I found myself asking over and over again, Wait, is this the same person who created and performed the now-iconic but slightly embarrassing “I'm on a Boat” for SNL? And am I now completely and totally in love with him? How can this be? What has happened to me? Am I... okay? The answer is yes to all the above, and ready to let the true Andy crushing begin.
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