I like it when a rom-com leans into the fact that the leads probably aren't going to end up together. You can call this cynicism given that Palm Springs ends on an optimistic note, but really, given these two characters' hangups and personalities, are they destined to make the long haul? I'm guessing no. And that's good, because the rom-com as a genre traffics in the cultural monolith of happily-ever-after, an ideal that more often than not sets people up…

I watched this as a prelude to seeing Maleficent, for the first time since I was a very young child. At a scant 75 minutes, its plot is too simple and iconic to forget. But what leapt out at me, viewing the film as an adult, is how thinly-disguised its explorations of patriarchal sexuality are.

Because, really, who wins in the end? The two kings, one of whom assigns his young son to marry the other's newborn girl, in a…