Daveed Diggs’ Sweet Song Turns Sour in Tense Sneak Peek at New Romantic Drama [Exclusive]

Over a year after making its world premiere at SXSW, Katie Aselton‘s latest film is about to pull into theaters this Friday. Magic Hour is the indie icon’s ambitious new romantic drama that hearkens back to her roots with her relationship-focused directorial debut, The Freebie, only with a few new twists and a wide-open desert ahead of the two leads. At the center of it is Charlie (Daveed Diggs) and Erin (Aselton), a married couple who escape into the barren environment in their attempts to navigate an unforeseen new phase of their relationship. Before it arrives, Collider can share an exclusive sneak peek that not only teases who these characters are but also the tension between them.

The opening moments of the clip let Diggs show off his singing voice, as Charlie dramatically belts out the lyrics of a song on the radio while he, Erin, and Erin’s mother, Diane (Susan Sullivan), drive through the desert. It’s a show of the boisterous energy he brings to the relationship, but that quickly comes to an end after Erin shuts off the music. As soon as the music stops, the tone shifts. Sick of hearing Charlie unload the soulful ballad, Diane decides to discuss the real reason she and Erin’s father divorced. It’s a sore spot that Erin still blames her mother for, but it gets worse when she reveals her husband had an affair. Bringing it up while Charlie is in the car seems all the more purposeful, and she outright spells it out that she thinks Erin can’t trust him, either. Unsurprisingly, that sets the married couple off and sends Erin storming off into the desert the second they pull over, with Charlie vindicated in his belief that her mother never liked him.

Such a painfully awkward, tense scene hints at the kind of hurdles Erin and Charlie have to overcome in their relationship. Magic Hour depicts a marriage built on deep love, but needing real time separate from all obstacles to work through the problems that plague them. There’s a somber nature to it, even hinted at in the argument between Charlie, Erin, and her mother, that indicates there is no fixing what’s gotten between them, but instead a need to learn to embrace what comes next. Aselton, Diggs, and Sullivan are joined by Brad Garrett and D.J. “Shangela” Pierce along the journey.

In addition to directing and starring, Aselton also co-wrote Magic Hour with her real husband and fellow indie icon, Mark Duplass. The film is backed by Duplass Brothers Productions. Together, the couple made their big break over two decades ago with their groundbreaking SXSW audience winner, The Puffy Chair, and have been regular partners either on-screen or behind it in everything from The League to Duplass’s Creep films and The Morning Show. In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub last year, they described their latest as a sort of return to the independent filmmaking they began with, born out of an idea over five years ago during their own little getaway from everything. Duplass further shared how it pulls from their own very real relationship dynamics and the conversations the couple has, albeit with a twist that audiences will just have to see for themselves.

“We pulled out our little notes app on our phone, and we just started talking about this movie idea. And as usual, it started more with, ‘What’s interesting to us? What do we uniquely have to offer? And what is that now?’ There are 500 movies and TV shows in your queue right now; how can we make something that’s just not another burden for you that you feel you have to watch? That’s the first question we ask. The thing that spilled out of our mouths first was our codependency. It’s something that we talk a lot about, and we are confused by and conflicted about.”

Magic Hour arrives in theaters on May 15.

View this article at Collider.