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Katie Aselton (Black Rock, The Freebie) directs her third feature with the Diane Keaton headlined Mack & Rita. Though any movie with Keaton is an absolutely must see for me, the feature is also blessed with an amazing ensemble. That topic, along with her thoughts on Keaton and her reflections on The Freebie, are discussed in the interview.
Mack Martin (Elizabeth Lail) is a 30-year-old author who is a homebody. That introverted nature needs an extroverted makeover since she is celebrating her best friend Carla’s (Taylour Paige) bachelorette celebrations in Palm Springs.
Since she is struggling to write her latest book, Mack is making ends meet as an influencer. It’s a job she is reluctant to do, and while she is supporting Carla’s partying, Mack simply wants to go home. Seeing herself as a 70-year-old trapped in a thirtysomething body, Mack gets her wish and transforms into her future self – Aunt Rita (Diane Keaton).
The comedy is buoyed by the always charismatic and locked in work from Keaton, and Lail is also great at getting viewers to invest in the character before that transformation takes place. Running at 95 minutes, the picture boasts a talented ensemble which includes Dustin Milligan, Wendie Malick, Loretta Devine, Patti Harrison, and Amy Hill.
What is the secret to Diane Keaton’s creative vitality? I would basically take her energy over the field.
I will tell you that Diane is 100% the most authentically herself person that I have ever met, which is exactly what we needed for this movie. She is the most instinctual – just everything that we have seen as an audience is exactly who she is. And just getting to work and play off that on the daily was just a dream.
I would love a three hour supercut of Mack & Rita since you have so many talented actors in your film.
I mean absolutely. I feel the same way. For us, we just really assembled a real dream team. There were so many alt versions (and) alt takes that we could have gone so much longer on. It turns out comedies have to be a little tight so we definintely had our jobs cut out for us in picking the right take for everyone.
But yeah, living in the edit suite, and I can’t say this about every movie, but living in the edit suite on this movie was pretty awesome.
What was it like in that editing suite, especally with the passion you had for this project? Did you find yourself there way too long and then suddenly the sun comes up?
Well here’s the wild thing. In the pandemic, the edit suite was my office at my house. We did everything remotely with the editor. It was sort of a best of both worlds.
I had my own family and my life there at my house with my editor on the screen. And we were just bouncing things back and form with one another.
Can you name one of your favorite movies? Also which of your own movies would you recommend our listeners check out?
One of my very favorite movies that I pulled from a lot with Mack & Rita was Baby Boom. What Diane does in Baby Boom I think is comedic brilliance and I asked her a lot of times to tap into that same sort of vibe that she brought to her character. I love that movie and it still holds up. It’s a really, really special film.
For me, my very first movie The Freebie, I am still incredibly proud of. It’s a movie I made for $10,000. (I think) it has all the feels and hearts and the vibe and I’m still after all of these years, still incredibly proud of that movie.”
