Year 13, Day 102 - 4/12/21 - Movie #3,806
BEFORE: I'm going to get back to more racially diverse films tomorrow - by moving Black History month to May, and really, I don't expect everyone else to get on board with this, because most everyone seems to prefer celebrating it in February, but I just have to follow my linking. And that means a few concessions have to be made, a couple films are in the mix that aren't very diverse at all, but they're needed to make the connections. I missed the connection back in March this film would have fit right in, between "Hall Pass" and "Can You Keep a Secret?", only I realizedit too late - also I wasn't quite sure how much of "romance" this film is. But it seems like a fun film and it got some streaming buzz, so I vowed to work it into the mix ASAP. Well, here it is. J.K. Simmons carries over again from "I'm Not Here". Maybe he'll be here today. Maybe things worked out for the best, because I was able to schedule two films back-to-back where time is fractured or non-linear, to some degree.
And from the past come these classic films, which will air in the future - tomorrow, April 13, as part of TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" line-up:
FOLLOW-UP TO: "When We First Met" (Movie #3,769)
AFTER: I think perhaps during the pandemic, in one form or another, we all had this kind of feeling, that we might be repeating the same day over and over, and that's one reason this film became such a big hit. When you take away the morning commute, when there's no place to go on the weekend, with restaurants and movie theaters closed, how do you even know when the weekend is? Take-out every night, every day is "Blursday", right? What month is it right now, even? Well, we never went full-on "Groundhog Day", like I'm pretty sure we all went to bed every night and woke up the next morning, but really, can we ever know for sure that we're not stuck in a time-loop? Maybe we only THINK we remember doing something different yesterday...
As somebody who already has a plan in place for making sure every day is different and unique, at least in terms of what movie I watch, I now have an even loftier goal - there's this NYC-based cable channel, what used to be called "public access", I think, now has a channel WAY up on the dial on the Spectrum cable system (channel 1993, I think). It's called MNN, Manhattan Neighborhood Network. There's a guy who started hosting a talk-show there in 1973, and since then he recorded over 4,400 episodes of his talk show, "Conversations with Harold Hudson Channer". Over time, he interviewed every major political figure, artist and intellectual figure you can imagine, and the show is still going. There's just one little problem, though, Harold Hudson Channer died on December 31, 2020 - and the show is STILL going. My boss gets weekly e-mails written in Channer's voice (from beyond the GRAVE! OOO-ooo-OOO!) that mention how in the future, he'll be directing most traffic to his web-site, and not the site for the channel. But every week he's still doing promos, which is a pretty good gig for a dead guy, they apparently don't take up too much of his day. I'm really looking forward to the show on April 16, where he interviews Marilyn Mach vos Savant, it should be interesting. (If you're already familiar with Mr. Channer's show, you may know that the initial response to being told that Mr. Channer passed away is usually, "How can you tell?")
But it got me thinking, since my numbers are getting up there, I'm past 3,800 posts, how much longer can I go on, with just 500 movies in the hopper. And if something should happen to me, how can I keep up the work, like Mr. Channer is doing, apparently? There's that famous list that I use as a guide, titled "1,001 Movies to Watch Before You Die", but there's no list to tell me which movies I should watch AFTER I die, what gives? I need some constructive advice on this. Please note, dear readers, that I believe in the power of repetition - I've been doing this so long that it's become impossible to stop - so if there is a way for me to continue organizing films into linked chains and posting reviews after I die, I will find it. If Harold Hudson Channer can do it, then so can I. I'm posting a screenshot below - note that this is a NEW episode, dated 4/6/21. How do I reconcile this with the obituary notice, dated 12/30/20?
Anyway, the man's track record is impressive, dead or alive. It gives me something to shoot for. Perhaps Mr. Channer was also caught in a time loop, and now he's finally free...which brings me to "Palm Springs", which really is an updated "Groundhog Day", in many respects. (It's not nominated for any Oscars, but there is a SHORT film that uses the same construct, only it details a black man reliving over and over the day he gets shot by a cop - it's called "Two Distant Strangers", and it's on Netflix. Hmm, I should watch that ASAP...). But there are some key differences, like in "Groundhog Day" we the audience were there at the start, the FIRST time weatherman Phil lives through Feb. 2 (though he's been reporting on it for years, so it probably feels like the millionth), but we see the first time THAT YEAR, then he gets stuck (how?) and has to live through the day many, many times over before becoming unstuck (again, how? This classic film is, honestly, very lean on the metaphysical details of it all.)
When we first meet Nyles in "Palm Springs", though, he's already been through this day thousands of times - notice how he moves through the dance floor, copying the dances of certain people, because he's seen their moves over and over. He knows JUST when to interrupt the wedding reception to prevent Sarah from being embarrassed, because she didn't know the Maid of Honor has to give a speech. (NITPICK POINT: Has she never been to a wedding before? How could someone NOT know this?). But it's the first time through for Sarah, however she gets caught up in Nyles' plight, and when a crazed hunter comes out of the desert and starts hunting him with a bow and arrow, she follows him into the mystical cave, which gets her all caught up in the time-loop, too.
Thankfully, Nyles already has this down to a science, he's been through this day a thousand (million?) times, and he knows how important it is to stay hydrated, he's slept with every woman at the wedding, and he's tried many times to escape, and always failed. Whenever he dies or goes to sleep, he wakes up back at the resort on the morning of November 9, back in his girlfriend's bed. His girlfriend's cheating on him, she's planning to break up with him, but he's used to it by now, he's been through it over and over and it no longer emotionally affects him. So he's just adopted a philosophy of "whatever", and spends half the day floating in a pool, drinking beer, then thinking up a new way to disrupt the wedding ceremony.
But things finally change when Sarah gets stuck in the loop, too - it takes her a while to go through the same process - trying to figure it out, trying to escape, then trying to commit suicide just to end the monotony and get out of the loop somehow. Eventually Nyles and Sarah become sort of partners in crime, learning complex dance routines together, messing with the wedding guests, getting high on mushrooms out in the desert. There's something like a love story that develops, only it's rooted in co-dependency, but isn't that a form of love? Nyles has been in the loop so long that he doesn't even remember his life in the before-times (just like, umm, all of us in the pandemic) but Sarah just wants out, even if she has to learn quantum relativity and blow up a few farm animals to do it. (OK, this isn't how physics works, for sure, so were the screenwriters too lazy to learn science, or did they just figure it would be too boring for the audience?)
I could go into a rather lengthy breakdown of how this is all impossible, but what's the point? I've done that before and I should get out of that loop myself, it just leads nowhere. Like, are Nyles and Sarah creating or experiencing alternate realities every time they re-live the day, or are they just unstuck in time like Billy Pilgrim was? How come the day is different for them, but not for everyone else, except that by influencing the people around them, they MAKE the day become different for others. (Great, now my head hurts...). This film is a whole lot of fun, and that goes a long way toward making up for the appalling lack of logic and science-y stuff. If you thought "Groundhog Day" took itself way too seriously, especially showing Bill Murray trying to live the "perfect day", then this is the film for you.
Also starring Andy Samberg (last seen in "Hot Rod"), Cristin Milioti (last seen in "The Wolf of Wall Street"), Peter Gallagher (last seen in "Burlesque"), Meredith Hagner (last seen in "Set It Up"), Camila Mendes, Tyler Hoechlin (last seen in "Can You Keep a Secret?"), Chris Pang (last seen in "Charlie's Angels"), Jacqueline Obradors (last seen in "Six Days Seven Nights"), June Squibb (last seen in "I'll See You in My Dreams"), Jena Friedman, Tongayi Chirisa, Dale Dickey (last seen in "Hell or High Water"), Conner O'Malley, Brian Duffy, Martin Kildare, Lilli Birdsell (last seen in "Dreamland"), with a cameo from Clifford V. Johnson.
RATING: 7 out of 10 cans of Akupara beer
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