Jaw-dropping ‘The Invite’ with Olivia Wilde, Seth…
film review
THE INVITE
Running time: 107 minutes. Not yet rated.
PARK CITY, Utah — If a better comedy than “The Invite” hits theaters this yr, audiences can be rattling fortunate to RSVP.
Director Olivia Wilde’s excellent film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival Saturday to a uncommon mountain standing ovation, ought to go down as one of the best of 2026. Of any style. You’ll howl.
What a gorgeous return to type this is for Wilde after the letdown that was “Don’t Worry Darling.”
I, for one, am no longer worrying, darlings, because now she’s firmly back in prime “Booksmart” territory with a refined, snappy, seductive and stupendously humorous movie about a long-married couple who are in means over their heads.
They’re Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde doing double responsibility), husband-and-wife residence dwellers for whom marriage has develop into a sleepy collection of silent nights and petty grievances.
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Their passive-aggressive putdowns are flung so rapidly and casually, you stroll out satisfied Wilde and Rogen have been secretly married for 20 years.
One night, when their 12-year-old daughter is at a buddy’s home, Angela invitations their bohemian upstairs neighbors Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penelope Cruz) over for a stylish wine-and-charcuterie celebration.
“The Invite” had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival
High-strung Angela desperately aspires to be thought-about cultured. And as she strenuously tries to show herself, Wilde offers one of her most interesting performances. Practically rhythmic gymnastics.
She mentally grasps for the thesaurus when she makes an attempt to describe her tremendous basic home renovation. And her face twists in operatic agony over snafus with her cheese souffle and empty wine cupboard. A bored stay-at-home mother, Angela is itching to host the cosmopolitan couple.
But Joe, a music trainer who hates his job, loathes the free-spirited pair because they’ve foghorn-loud intercourse into the early morning, and insists the get-together be called off. Too late. The pair knock, knock, knock mid-fight.
“We love a contentious environment,” says zen Hawk.
“You’ve hit the jackpot then,” deadpans Joe.
They sure have.
Edward Norton, Olivia Wilde and Seth Rogan attend Sundance. Getty Images
The phenomenal script is a bullet prepare of imply slights, awkward miscommunications, deception and “oh no!” bombshells. And Wilde, her actors — particularly masterful Rogen — and editor are silliness savants.
Punchlines, witty asides and bodily bits are delivered and choreographed with such simple dexterity, “The Invite” virtually doesn’t really feel like a 2026 comedy, a designation that normally means “dumb as rocks” or “drama with a clown nose.”
The type right here is retro, yet the sheer abundance of really great jokes retains it contemporary and trendy.
The erratic soiree strikes from the kitchen to the sofa. The vino and tequila circulate, the pot will get smoked and the Xanax will get popped.
And while that booze-to-blows setup rings of the outdated system from “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and the later play-turned-Roman-Polanski film “God of Carnage,” its avalanche of zingers — none of which fall flat — and frenetic tempo set “The Invite” aside.
Seth Rogan performs Joe, a music trainer who hates his job. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Joe and Angela are also not scotch-swilling teachers like George and Martha or hapless suburbanites doing sophomoric-if-fun gags, like Rogen and Rose Byrne in “Neighbors.” You’ll acknowledge this spark-snuffed duo to the purpose of cringing.
I used to be reminded of when I go to outdated friends who have children, and they regale me with all the stuff they will’t do anymore.
And, while Hawk and Pina — whose jobs are too amusing to drop right here — are their life-loving opposites, Norton and Cruz don’t ham it up. They aren’t the Fockers; they’re that inhibitionless buddy who says, “Come with me to Mykonos!” a day before the flight.
The two zesty actors are hilarious. However, in a reversal, it’s the “straight” duo who present most of the laughs — not the wacky one.
The workforce of “The Invite” attends their Sundance world premiere. Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock
If you sense where the film is headed, you’re proper — and also mistaken.
“The Invite” is lusty for sure, but it has a critical facet, which barges in during the ultimate half hour when questions about Joe and Angela’s relationship tumble out into the open.
Issues hundreds of thousands of people face on a regular basis are addressed cleverly and poignantly, and never without a trace of humor. Wilde isn’t actually in sentimentality, either, and her film hits tougher for it.
“The Invite” could be the worst celebration of the yr, but beg, borrow and steal for an invite.
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