The Invite

Olivia Wilde swept this year’s Sundance, starring in Gregg Araki’s long-anticipated comeback I Want Your Sex, as well as eliciting a bidding war for her own third directorial effort.

In The Invite, she stars as Angela, a 40-something housewife, who the audience meets invigorated with purpose at hosting a dinner for their upstairs neighbours. She painstakingly assembled a charcuterie board of European cheeses and ham, even bought a new rug and blouse for this evening. When her husband Joe (Seth Rogen) returns home, he not only neglected to bring the wine she asked for, but is overall reluctant to receive visitors. Just as the two are launching into a fight, their guests (Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz) arrive.

The four-hander is an intoxicatingly funny relationship comedy where the comedy gradually chips away to reveal tragedy beneath. Writers Rashida Jones and Will McCormack (both actors in their own right) brilliantly adapted the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs to American sensitivities, leaning into vicarious embarrassment. Humour is derived from the awkwardness of particular social situations and agonising politeness. At the same time, the dialogue is layered with recurring micro-aggressions that inevitably sneak into a longstanding couple’s conduct.

With the exception of an opening montage, the feature is set entirely in Joe and Angela’s apartment and, like any chamber piece, relies on its performances to keep momentum alive.

The ensemble proves a fantastic compound. Wilde provides the essential glue holding the quartet together through her protagonist’s desperate desire to absorb the lovebird’s bliss by sheer proximity to them. Her exertion is perfectly contrasted by Cruz’s laissez-faire attitude. Norton reminds us that his presence in cinema has been sorely missed, as he pivots effortlessly between the emotional nuances of each scene and infuses his character’s eccentricity with a beguiling flirtatiousness and vulnerability. Rogen, interestingly, portrays a relatively stuffy counterweight, balancing the more free-wheeling threesome with restraint.

As a director, Wilde confidently navigates the narrative between comedic beats and sincere character reflection. Like her debut Booksmart, the feature thrives on an intimate form of storytelling that allows audiences to project and relate to the experiences on screen.

The Invite is a fun, no-holds-barred comedy for adults of the sort that has become increasingly rare in cinemas – last year’s Splitsville coming to mind as the only recent apt comparison. Anyone who appreciates great acting and wants to have a good laugh before being hit right in the gut should not miss this.