Some much-deserved recognition could be coming for Palm Springs.
It's been months since Hulu released its hit time loop comedy and we're obviously still thinking about it—especially ahead of the 2021 Golden Globes. The movie is nominated for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, and Andy Samberg scored a nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Right in the middle of the global time loop we all seem to have found ourselves in thanks to a massive pandemic, The Lonely Island gifted us with a movie about two wedding guests stuck in a time loop with no clear way out. No one could have known what would happen when they were making the movie, and even in January, when Hulu and Neon bought the movie in the highest sale ever at Sundance (by a purposefully hilarious 69 cents), they could not have predicted that movie theaters would soon shut down. Streaming, alongside a stint in drive-in theaters, became the only option. But it all ended up working out perfectly.
"This pandemic combined with the rush of bringing it out to the world has definitely blurred time, but it's just been super gratifying to see people engage with [the movie] in such a thoughtful and passionate way," director Max Barbakow tells E! News. "We wanted to give people an opportunity to just laugh and think and feel with the movie, and it's just resonating in a deeper way right now and people are getting that. And I will say, it's just nice to see that it's playing and being experienced in the way that we intended with everything that we put into it."
Upon its release, Palm Springs immediately broke all of Hulu's original movie records, becoming the highest viewed movie on the platform its opening weekend. But it might have also broken our brains.
While Nyles has pretty much resigned himself to being stuck in the loop, Sarah spends pretty much the whole movie desperately trying to get out. She eventually learns a whole lot of physics and figures out a slightly terrifying plan, and she and Nyles do end up at least getting out of that particular Nov. 9. But do they truly make it to Nov. 10? That's just one of the questions we haven't been able to get out of our heads for the past three weeks as we've thought about, talked about, and even tried to emulate this perfect summer 2020 movie.
We got Barbakow to answer some of our biggest burning questions about the movie, and while he had a few answers, he also gave us more questions to ask, including a question for us to ask about ourselves: Why are we so obsessed with whether and how Nyles and Sarah got out of the time loop when the point is that wherever they are, they're there together?
There's probably some sort of metaphor in there related to what's happening in the world right now, but even if there is, let's face it—we will never stop being obsessed with getting out of the loop.
So without further ado, here are director Max Barbakow's answers to our many burning questions about the movie Palm Springs.
Palm Springs is now streaming on Hulu.
A version of this story was originally published on Aug. 4.