Olivia Wilde is back with her third feature-length directorial effort, The Invite. And man, what a comeback it is! After making a strong start with Booksmart (2019), she shook her career pretty hard with Don’t Worry Darling (2022) — a film so bad you don’t even want to remember it. But The Invite is easily one of the best films of the year. In the middle of this endless cycle of indie horror, animation, and superhero movies, and right when the summer heat is hitting hard, it offers a refreshing, wonderful experience that genuinely cools you down.
In American cinema, only rare gems like The Invite manage to make you feel like you’re watching a really good European film. Usually, an American movie starts feeling European when it mostly takes place in a single location, relies heavily on strong acting performances, dense dialogue, and has the courage to dig deep into those conversations. Being a remake of the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs, The Invite succeeds in bringing all these elements together. But we don’t need to credit Europe with everything good. The screenplay comes from the duo of Rashida Jones and Will McCormack — the same writers who gave us the wonderful romantic comedy Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012). There’s a special kind of charm in every project they touch, and they always manage to make you like it. (Toy Story 4 excluded, of course. Don’t even get me started on that one)
The film takes place in Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela’s (Olivia Wilde) apartment in San Francisco. Their marriage is 10–15 years old and in serious trouble. Joe was once a promising indie rock musician, now he’s a bored high school music teacher living an unhappy life. Angela is a stay-at-home wife who pours all her energy into renovating the apartment and maintaining the image of a “perfect home.” They’re the classic portrait of an ordinary bourgeois couple who turn every sentence into an excuse to fight, with no romantic or sexual spark left in their marriage. I’m sure most of you have friends who fit this profile — hell, maybe you are this profile. That’s how effective the film is at creating a realistic texture and showing awareness of the society it portrays.
So what would be the exact opposite of this couple? The film doesn’t surprise us much here and brings in the upstairs neighbors, Pína and Hawk — exactly the kind of couple you’d imagine. Because Joe and Angela invited them over for dinner.Pína is a charismatic, free-spirited, blunt, and incredibly sexy Spanish woman. Hawk is a former firefighter, a bit hippie-ish, calm but arrogant. Their relationship is extremely open, passionate, and non-monogamous. Joe and Angela have been disturbed for years by the loud sex sounds (orgasms, noises) coming through the ceiling from upstairs.
The conversation at the dinner table starts lightly, but Pína and Hawk are very curious and sincere. They comment on the photos and objects in the house. Soon, the cracks in Joe and Angela’s marriage begin to show: Joe’s lost dreams, Angela’s feeling of invisibility, their sexual incompatibility, and lack of communication…
Just when the conversation keeps getting deeper, the film drops the bomb: Pína and Hawk make a four-way sex / swinger proposal to Joe and Angela. “Just try it, maybe it’ll be good for your marriage,” they say. Up until that point, you’re asking yourself “where is this movie going?” and slowly getting bored. But after this moment, the film completely spirals out of control. The question of accept or reject, jealousy, desire, anger, shame, and confessions all mix together, and the movie becomes incredibly fun. This is exactly where The Invite shows its true colors: deep monologues, sharp humor that actually makes you laugh, and peak-level performances.
Seth Rogen delivers one of the deepest and most layered performances of his career, while still keeping that signature energy we’ve loved for years. Olivia Wilde, even though she’s both director and lead actress, doesn’t give an overly committed performance, but she successfully creates a real married-couple dynamic with Rogen. Penélope Cruz, on the other hand, gives such a seductive performance that if she offered you the forbidden apple, you’d bite without hesitation. I think that says enough. Edward Norton just stands there with all his charisma and presence that honors us, delivering yet another great performance as always. He’s playing a half-crazy character who’s a former firefighter turned hippie, and Norton has a natural talent for bringing these wild guys to life.
In the end, The Invite transforms from a movie you’re watching into a real-life event you feel like you’re witnessing from the next room. It successfully answers the questions it raises throughout the film, and leaves you impressed with its performances and dialogue. As a host, it presents one of the most magnificent examples of hospitality… Though Joe really should’ve remembered the wine.
