INDIE SPOTLIGHT: Finding Grounding in Creative Freedom with ‘Magic Hour’ Filmmaker and Co-Star Katie Aselton

Charlie and Erin escape to the desert to navigate an unexpected and challenging new phase of their relationship. A Duplass Brothers Production starring Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) and Katie Aselton (The League).

Magic Hour is a film that immediately grabs your attention and relentlessly holds onto it for 80 minutes. As you fit the puzzle pieces together in real time, holding your breath for a glimmer of hope and asking questions that should make or break a character, there’s instantly a turn and twist that you didn’t account for. And once the end credits hit the screen, you’re left with answers, yes, but are still perpetually bound to these characters and the ‘what if’ and what will become of Erin, played by writer-director Katie Aselton.

Going into this movie solely based off the little we are told and show in the trailer, that’s truly all you need. It’s a film to experience, a film that does leave you devastated, grappling with your emotions, and vulnerability rearing it’s pretty head.

I had the great honor of speaking with the wonderful creative and human that is Katie Aselton. After sharing a very practical and important parenting/marriage tip and advice, we got into the weeds about her new film Magic Hour. I left our conversation incredibly inspired and uplifted and with a resounding feeling of hope as an independent creative – in that it’s OK to be selfish.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

In most instances when one thinks of the desert, it invokes images of isolation, vast emptiness, drought ridden, lifeless – still. But in reality, the desert has a beating pulse, every crack leads to a sign of life, and that stillness gives room to settle with yourself, completely. And that is the overwhelming feeling you get when you step foot in Joshua Tree, California.

There is something in the wind, in the dirt, the creatures, and amongst the people that call this desert oasis home that inevitably takes you onto a creative journey that insists you tap into your vulnerability – whether you asked for it or not. I’ve had my fair share of those creative sparks while in Joshua Tree, from writing to filming on location.

Filmmaker Katie Aselton is one of those lucky few that has found a profound spiritual creative spark while visiting Joshua Tree. “It’s freaking real. The subject matter of Magic Hour is trippy and wild, and that was a very strange emotional place to be in… Now when I go back to Joshua Tree, my whole soul goes wonky… This sounds so stupid to say out loud [laughs] I’m gonna acknowledge that part, but it feels like I was on an emotional plane that I don’t normally exist on.”

And it’s true, the subject matter of Magic Hour is trippy and wild, and could only exist as it is in a place like Joshua Tree. Without going into much spoiler territory, as the film does play out, there are emotional revelations, both internal and visually, that conjures mirages of otherworldliness.

Katie and her husband and creative partner (and film’s co-writer), Mark Duplass, have certainly had a reasonably successful careers in show business. Having kicked down the doors with their indie darling Puffy Chair in 2005, and acting in shows like The League and The Morning Show to Katie working alongside giants like Diane Keaton. But along the way, the creative satisfaction was lost. When Mark asked her the simple question, “What do you want this year to look like?” on the drive home from a ritual top of year vacation, Katie said, “I really want to make a movie for me.” Not something to please anyone. Not for the critics. Just a movie for her.

So, she and Mark got down to the brass tacks of what to write about. “We only write what we know. Puffy Chair was about us, without being about us. Freebie, my first feature that I directed was not about us, but it was definitely based on people we knew. How do we mine our own personal lives?”

While married life with kids can be less than stimulating and as she says, “We’re so boring, there’s no drama. Where’s the conflict?” They began to dissect their whole dynamic, and what sparked their curiosity was the idea of codependence. And the idea of being so deeply in love with someone, you can’t live without them. “That was our jumping off point. Let’s play in that world. It’s based on us, without being based on us.”

There is fun in the game of “What if?” especially if the mirror is held up to your life… what kind of stories could you come up with? Tapping into that vulnerability and maybe finding some emotional catharsis along the way.

And while Magic Hour is far from Katie and Mark’s life – the characters Erin (wonderfully played by Katie) and Charlie (played by the incredibly compassionate actor Daveed Diggs), in some ways do find their way to emotional catharsis – as does the audience.

While Katie’s goal was to make a movie for herself, I’m so glad she decided to share this film with audiences. Beautifully shot by cinematographer Sarah Whelden – it would have been a shame for audiences to not be able to sit in this world.

There is some irony however in her selfishly making this film for herself – the themes are so incredibly universal, that people can find their way in to relate, for the themes to emotionally resonate.

“Mark says this thing that I love – you make a movie and you think it is about something, and then you share it with an audience, and they tell you what it’s about.” Magic Hour had a great year long festival run, where Katie was overjoyed by the audience’s reaction and participation. “There’s three types of audiences: the people who stay seated for the Q and A… And people who want to talk about it… they have experienced that love going away and want to share their experience in this loss… And the people who want to be devasted,” she equates the devastation aspect to a line from a poem that a tattoo artist did, ‘Devastate me, baby.’

And devastated you will be with Magic Hour. As the story unfolds, the world closes in, and Erin spirals, you get a grip on reality and boy… it’s devastating, no matter how hard Charlie attempts to make you dislike him.

Yes, flashbacks. A technique abused by many. But in this instance, the way the flashbacks are creatively introduced and utilized are truly a chef’s kiss. The opening scene, minor spoiler alert, begins with what we will later learn is a flashback. But it does achieve a few main objectives in answering: Who are these people? What is their relationship? What are their fears? What do they want? You are immediately emotionally hooked. Not quite sure where the ride ahead will take you, but you’re along for the ride regardless.

“Those were reshoots… after getting advice. We shot from a scriptment. 45 pages of scenes, little bits of dialogue. And the movie opened with the first scene at the house in the desert. When you’re writing, you’re with those characters. And you sort of forget you’re asking a lot of the audience to know who they are in the first five minutes of the movie.”

The reshoots are also indie/guerrilla filmmaking genius. While Magic Hour is wonderfully and beautifully cinematic, the flashbacks were filmed on a cell phone, mostly by Daveed portraying his character, Charlie. The juxtaposition of the self-facing images are rather flat and isolated, but punctuate the emotional turbulence on hand.

“Mark had the idea of doing these flashbacks… I was so torn, because we have no technology in the whole movie. Once you’re in the desert, there’s no cell phones, there’s no computers… she’s just alone. It was a surprising gift to me. I was pleasantly surprised at how it worked and how it really did give you a separation of what their life was like before in a window.”

Catch the Greenwich Entertainment release only in Theaters on May 15, 2026.