The longer this Covid-19 lockdown continues, the more it feels like we are reliving the same day over and over again – just like in these five movies … Palm Springs (2020) One of the few genuinely great things to come out of 2020 is this delightfully fresh and funny romantic comedy. It puts a new slant on “one of those infinite time loop situations” by having two characters stuck in it together. Sarah (the wonderful Cristin Milioti) arrives at the eponymous resort town for her prettier, more successful younger sister’s wedding. At the ceremony she meets Nyles (Andy Samberg), an affable slacker seemingly without a care in the world, but by the end of the evening she has unwittingly followed him into a nearby cave and wakes up on the morning of the wedding as if nothing has happened. Nyles, who has been stuck in the same day for what feels like an eternity, now has a partner in crime. The pair embark on a series of increasingly madcap antics that pull them closer to one another, but inevitably leave an impact on the world around them. Happy Death Day (2017) What if you were stuck in a slasher movie as well as a time loop? That’s the unexpectedly hilarious premise of Christopher Landon’s franchise-launching horror hit . Jessica Rothe plays Tree, a college student who relives her birthday over and over again. That might sound like one endless party, but while her evening does start out that way, it ends with her being brutally murdered by a mysterious masked killer. Each time she dies she wakes up back where her day began, hung over in the dorm room of her classmate Carter (Israel Broussard). After a few deadly encounters, and similarly mortifying walks of shame, Tree realises she has no alternative but to catch her own killer and prevent her endless death. Happy Death Day is that rare beast, a horror movie that is genuinely funny, while also managing to be a comedy that will scare you silly. The sequel, Happy Death Day 2U , repeats the formula, and its success. Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Tom Cruise is at his best when pushing back against his movie-star looks and playing flawed, unlikeable characters. In Doug Liman’s hugely entertaining adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel All You Need is Kill , Cruise does precisely that, as John Cage, a slimy media relations officer for the military. When thrown onto the frontlines of an ongoing intergalactic war with a race of vicious aliens, Cage inadvertently becomes trapped in a time loop, living out his own grisly death again and again. That is until he encounters Emily Blunt’s legendary warrior, the Angel of Verdun, and together they train Cage up to be a proficient soldier who might help them win a war he already knows they are doomed to lose. Cruise and Liman have great fun with the material, wringing the premise for as many laughs as possible in between the explosive action and burgeoning romance. The result is quite possibly Cruise’s best film of the 21st Century outside the Mission Impossible franchise. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) A teenage girl obtains the power to leap back through time in Mamoru Hosoda’s multi-award-winning film, which serves as a loose sequel to Yasutaka Tsutsui’s 1967 novel of the same name. Makoto uses her new-found power to solve various problems in her daily life, not least the complicated friendship she has with two boys, the studious Kosuke and the more carefree Chiaki. However, when she learns that her time leaps are quickly running out, she learns to use her powers to address more meaningful concerns. Beautifully animated, and featuring music from Kiyoshi Yoshida and Hanako Oku, the film ranks among the best anime of the last couple of decades. The mantra “Time waits for no one” permeates Hosoda’s film, which approaches the normally playful premise with a greater degree of melancholy than other films of its ilk, acknowledging that fate plays its part, and that we will always regret the opportunities and relationships we allow to pass us by. Groundhog Day (1993) As if there was ever any doubt, the defining film of this particular time-travel subgenre is this evergreen comedy from Ghostbusters veterans Bill Murray and director Harold Ramis. Blending Capra-esque small-town charm with Murray’s signature deadpan delivery, Groundhog Day seized upon a little-known provincial tradition and made it synonymous with torturous repetition. Murray has never been better than here, playing the self-centred big city weatherman who is sent to small-town Punxsutawney to cover its bizarre groundhog ceremony, only to become trapped living out Groundhog Day until he learns how to be a better person, and possibly even woo his new producer, played by Andie MacDowell. The genius of the premise comes with his increasingly outlandish desperation, which veers from repeated suicide attempts to finally embracing his fate and mastering a plethora of ridiculous new skills. Eschewing any kind of science fiction device in favour of magical divine intervention ensures that the film ages like a fine mulled wine and remains a perennial favourite. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook