Time Loop Movies

August 6 2020 – Palm Springs (2o20) Hulu. Happy Death Day (2017) Amazon Prime Rental

I am a sucker for time loop movies, where people relive the same day or few moments over and over again. Groundhog Day of course is the first and still the best in this genre, but there are other entertaining time loop movies.

I am not sure why these movies appeal to me so much. I guess I have always been attracted to alternate worlds. There is something comforting in knowing that our world is not the only possible world, that alternatives to our messed-up world are out there somewhere. The time loop movie is the most comforting kind of alternative world movie. I like the idea that you can learn by trying different things, that you don’t need to fear messing up because no matter what you do, everything resets tomorrow.

Besides Groundhog Day, my favorite time loop movies are Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow (the action-adventure version with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt), Source Code (the thriller/mystery version with Jake Gyllenhaal) and Day Break (the noir version, a 2006 one-season ABC show with Taye Diggs – let me know if you find it streaming somewhere because I couldn’t).

Palm Springs is the latest in this genre, a new romantic comedy starring Adam Samburg and Christina Milioti with nice turns from J.K. Simmons, Peter Gallagher, and Jane Squib. This is an amiable if not entirely memorable movie, a nice way to spend a couple of pandemic hours. Though many of the familiar time loop tropes are present, this movie breaks new ground in two ways.

First, Palm Springs doesn’t start on Adam Samburg’s first day in the time loop – he has been there years, maybe even decades, when the movie starts. Palm Springs omits my least favorite part of time loop movies, the first time a day repeats and the protagonist is confused and angry about what is happening. On the first day of a time loop movie, we the audience are way, way ahead of the protagonist.

The second way Palm Springs departs from previous Time Loop movies is by bringing a second person into the Loop. The dynamic of isolation and loneliness is transformed when someone else is in the loop along with the protagonist.

Palm Springs made me want to watch more time loop movies, so I also watched Happy Death Day, which I had never seen. Happy Death Day is the slasher version of the time loop movie, as the character played by Jessica Roth struggles to figure out who keeps killing her over and over again. The tone of the movie is similar to the Scream movies – tense and violent at times, but also funny. I love the scream movies so Happy Death Day was right up my alley. I look forward to watching the sequel when it becomes available on one of the streaming services.

There is one moment in every time loop movie that never makes sense to me. The protagonist eventually tries to explain their situation to a friend or lover, that they are living the same day over again. The person they confide in doesn’t believe them initially of course – it is a confusing situation to explain. But it would be so much easier to explain if they just said: “it is like the movie Groundhog Day.” How come no one in time loop movies has seen or even knows the plot of Groundhog Day? It makes no sense. Happy Death Day has an amusing coda where it finally acknowledges this weird selective amnesia about Groundhog Day.