I hope you’ve all had a fantastic week. My film club pick of the month post for May is normally for paid subscribers only, but this month, you’re getting it for free! I’m resharing my article about the 2020 film Palm Springs, which came out on Seen & Unseen a few weeks ago.
The article goes into detail about the premise of the film, but to sum it up here as well, Palm Springs is about a young man and a young woman who get stuck in a time loop at a wedding. If you google it, the ‘genre’ will probably be described as ‘sci-fi rom com’ or ‘time-loop romantic dramedy’, or something equally absurd. The film itself makes fun of its own creative (and sometimes ridiculous) mixing of genre. But don’t be fooled. It’s a much smarter film than any of those labels suggest. At its core, Palm Springs is about how to create meaningful relationships in our post-sexual revolution society, where permanence and commitment often come second to self-actualisation and personal fulfilment. And it’s about how love (actual love, meaning actions, not infatuation) allows us to glimpse what eternity looks like. The cast is stellar, the script is perfectly paced, and the main character quotes from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. If that hasn’t convinced you to watch it yet, here is my Seen & Unseen article:
Perpetually present in Palm Springs
A movie's time loop explores the meaning in the mundane.
Beatrice Scudeler
Beatrice writes on literature, religion, the arts, and the family. Her published work can be found here.
I hope you enjoy reading this! As this post was free, next week’s post, in which I will discuss a new Jane Austen character, will be for paid subscribers. If you’re able to, please consider becoming a paid subscriber: I love writing, and supporting my work means that I can continue to do so, and hopefully write even more often in the future!