"Love is a Many-Splendored Thing", as the song goes. For Angela (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogen), the lead couple of The Invite, love is mostly a torturous thing. The moment they see each other in their San Francisco home, they start bitterly arguing. Everything they do seems to stir up resentment in the other person. Joe's especially infuriated that Angela randomly invited neighbors Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penélope Cruz) for a social event.
This couple absolutely fascinates Angela. Her husband, meanwhile, has immense hostility towards them, especially for all the sexual noises they make at night. When the kindly, candid Hawk and insightful Pina arrive, tension is everywhere. Though they put on a smile and gracious airs, Angela and Joe can’t stop undercutting each other. These smiling, physically intimate neighbors just bring out the worst in The Invite’s leads. As the night progresses, though, some unexpected revelations make this social gathering especially memorable. That’s particularly true for a proposition (an invite, you might say) that Hawk and Pina propose for their hosts.
The Invite (a remake of the 2020 comedy The People Upstairs) exudes immense chutzpah on the part of screenwriters Will McCormack & Rashida Jones and director Olivia Wilde. Like other great movies confined to a single location, like The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant or Mass, The Invite’s creative team understands that you don’t need a plethora of rooms to create compelling drama. With no awkward cuts to flashbacks or worlds beyond Angela and Joe’s apartment, The Invite doesn’t just demonstrate incredible commitment to its storytelling scope. It also lets the simmering tension and hysterical throwaway moments sing.
Such are the sharp artistic inclinations informing The Invite’s hysterical sensibilities. Simply put, this is a deeply funny movie. This dialogue-driven affair is like someone fused the cramped scope and squabbling characters of a John Cassavetes feature with Nathan for You/I Think You Should Leave cringe comedy. Like pairing Post Malone with Beyoncé, that’s an unexpected mixture that works like dynamite. After getting derailed by the convoluted Don’t Worry Darling, Wilde’s witty filmmaking chops from Booksmart are back and better than ever.
So many of these gags get their impactfulness from Wilde and cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra staunchly refusing to succumb to the generic visual impulses of many modern comedy movies. The Invite joins Maddie's Secret as a summer 2026 indie yukfest crusading for specific and rich imagery in this genre. Just look at a visual gag where Angela nonchalantly dumps a burnt soufflé immediately after pulling it out of the oven. This beat transpires in one unbroken shot, which makes the abrupt disposal of the dish so extra funny. Plus, not cutting the camera around and keeping viewers at a distance lets one appreciate Wilde’s fantastic physicality in this beat.
Similarly sublime is the way Wild and Newport-Berra use features of Angela and Joe’s apartment to accentuate entrapment. On the surface, their San Francisco domicile looks like a rudimentary home. For Angela and Joe, though, these seemingly ordinary spaces are their prison cells. Thus, The Invite keeps framing the four leads through doorways or confined window frames. You can practically feel the walls closing in around this couple as they get trapped in awkward conversations or revelations about how they’re secretly finding joy in humdrum existences.
Screenwriters Will McCormack & Rashida Jones bring those tense exchanges to life. Above all else, The Invite features killer humorous dialogue. Each of these four leads has an incredibly distinctive voice. Pina, for instance, has a confident and decisive aura. Whenever she opens her mouth, your eyes dart towards her. Angela, meanwhile, is a people-pleaser Oobleck constantly shifting her shape and words to placate her guests. Then there’s cantankerous Joe, who couldn’t be further from the candid and upbeat Hawk if he tried. Watching a repressed couple colliding with a confidently free-spirited romantic duo inspires steady, sturdy laughs.
Many of those laughs come from Wilde’s gusto performance. Hollywood wasted this lady in disposable “romantic interest” parts in early 2010s blockbusters like Tron: Legacy and Cowboys & Aliens. That was always frustrating, but The Invite makes it downright tragic Wilde got pigeonholed in those parts. She’s got such expressive eyes, for one thing, that scream out how much Angela needs to connect with other souls.
Wilde also displays great humorous physicality throughout The Invite. This trait materializes right from the start when Angela crouches down and points at a cooking soufflé. Meanwhile, her portrayal of Angela’s enraptured state upon hearing about Pina and Hawk’s sexual exploits is both endearing and chortle-inducing. She’s just so genuinely curious, not to mention full of verve finally referencing “a DP” in conversation.
Wilde combines that amusing pose with her characters palpably intense urgency to make this and other physicality-based Invite moments sing. The other members of this movie’s quartet are also exceptionally amusing. Rogen’s nonchalant witticisms and unpolished awkwardness often make for a hilarious contrast to the other characters. That’s especially true when Pina and Hawk’s more sexually active behavior comes up in conversations and. Here, Rogen's Joe casually drops the most insane responses to these erotic revelations (including one bit about “counting the rings”). Cruz is effortlessly magnetic even when she’s portraying Pina at her most weed-induced goofiest. Norton, meanwhile, wrings immensely impactful yuks from the most soft-spoken line deliveries.
Watching these four actors firing on all cylinders in a movie with such sharp writing and equally commendable visuals makes The Invite a social gathering well worth attending. Beneath the barrage of laughs, though, is a thoughtful dissection of what makes a “successful” relationship. Is it adhering to society's monogamous heteronormative standards (“one man, one woman, until you die”) even if you’re both miserable? Is it engaging in more “unconventional” (by mainstream American standards) interactions?
The Invite potently explores how one relationship “mold” can’t guarantee success. What’s critical is a two-way street of communication and empathy. Underlying toxicity between two souls won’t suddenly become bearable with group sex sessions or suddenly adhering to an Amish approach to intimacy/relationships. It’s the rapport between people (or, in troubled relationships, the lack of rapport) that makes all the difference. That same quality also informs The Invite’s steady stream of hearty laughs. Love can be “many-splendored.” It can be torturous. In this movie, it’s often hilarious more than anything else.
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