![‘Magic Hour’ Review: Katie Aselton & Daveed Diggs Fuel A Charming Duplass Production [SXSW]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/10142945/MagicHour_KatieAselton_DaveedDiggs_CredSarahWhelden_Still07.jpg "‘Magic Hour’ Review: Katie Aselton & Daveed Diggs Fuel A Charming Duplass Production [SXSW]")
The desert can make anything look romantic until it starts stripping people down to what they’re actually carrying. That’s the terrain of “Magic Hour,” the latest feature from Katie Aselton, who directs, co-writes, and stars opposite Daveed Diggs in a relationship drama that looks less interested in tidy catharsis than in the emotional wreckage couples try to talk their way through when the ground underneath them has already shifted.
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The film follows Erin and Charlie, a couple who escape to the desert to navigate “an unexpected and challenging new phase of their relationship,” and Greenwich describes it as “an intimate drama with a magical realist twist.” That setup gives the film a slightly off-center frame from the start—part romantic drama, part emotional reckoning, part something stranger hovering at the edges.
Aselton co-wrote the film with Mark Duplass, and the project arrives under the Duplass Brothers Productions banner, which feels about right for a movie built around messy intimacy, exposed nerves, and the uncomfortable gap between what people say they want and what they can actually survive together. Brad Garrett and Susan Sullivan round out the cast.
Aselton is best known on screen for “The League” and “Togetherness,” but she has steadily built a directing career as well, with features including “The Freebie,” “Black Rock,” and “Mack & Rita.” Diggs, of course, brings the post-“Hamilton” mix of charisma and edge that can make even a two-hander feel unstable in the right way.
After premiering at SXSW, “Magic Hour” is now heading to theaters through Greenwich Entertainment, with release beginning May 15. “Magic Hour” opens in theaters on May 15. Watch the trailer below.
