After taking a bold swing with her sophomore feature Don’t Worry Darling, director Olivia Wilde has returned with her follow-up The Invite, a film that is not only smaller in scale, but far more intimate and compelling. Not only that, but Wilde has crafted one of the funniest and most emotionally potent films of 2026 thus far.
The Invite centers on Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde), a deeply troubled married couple who decide to invite their charming and seductive neighbors Piña (Penelope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) over for dinner. What starts out as an awkward and uncomfortable dinner party transitions into something far more exciting and unexpected. While the central conceit is fun and fresh, it’s the script, performances and direction that help elevate this film to become one of the year’s finest.
With a film that takes place largely within the limited confines of an apartment, effective and thoughtful direction is paramount for its success. Thankfully, Wilde is more than up for the task, showcasing her dexterity for blocking and storytelling, keeping each frame dynamic and precise without getting in the way of the film’s top-notch story and performances. It’s heavily apparent she’s in her element here, clearly far more comfortable and at ease working on a smaller, more intimate scale, wielding the camera with a confidence and bravura that was largely absent from her last feature. The stellar cinematography from DP Adam Newport-Berra, who previously worked on Rogen’s beloved Apple TV+ series The Studio, is simply the cherry on top, giving the film a modern, but vintage visual aesthetic that compliments the atmosphere Wilde has created wonderfully. As a result, this is a visually sumptuous film, rare for a comedy to say the least.
Then there’s the performances which are pitch-perfect here. This quartet of talented performers have palpable comedic and dramatic chemistry, bringing out the very best in one another as they lean into every zig and zag the story throws at the viewer, handling the shifts in tone deftly and with gusto. The jokes are delivered with pinpoint precision from everyone involved, making every verbal thrash and right hook suitably visceral and hilarious. Norton and Cruz make for a dynamite pairing, their steamy chemistry and prowess on full display at every turn. However, Rogen and Wilde are the standouts here, each of them delivering possibly the finest performances of their respective careers. Rogen has never been more ferocious and delightfully corrosive, conveying Joe’s physical and emotional pain in a way that’s deeply magnetic. Wilde is able to delightfully toe the line between being neurotic and achingly vulnerable as Angela, a character who in a lesser actor’s hands could’ve been far too abrasive and unappealing. Together, the two of them not only make their marriage feel authentic and lived in, but their repartee and chemistry is surprisingly off the charts here.
It also doesn’t hurt that the script from Rashida Jones and Will McCormack is wickedly sharp and potent. The jokes come fast and furiously throughout and there’s rarely any screen time without a notable laugh or terrific back and forth between characters. Their comedic pacing is dizzyingly good, knowing when to ramp up the humor and when to dial it down to dish an impactful emotional blow. What they’ve crafted here is essentially a Trojan horse comedy. It gets in the door with its fun and alluring concept delivering plenty of crowd-pleasing laughs, but it’s able to pull the rug out from under the viewer’s feet as it slowly reveals itself to be a film that’s actually about Joe and Angela’s fractured relationship and a heartbreaking one at that. This reveal and transition in tone is handled with meticulous care by Jones and McCormack, never making this move of the tonal needle and exploration feel juxtaposed from all that came before and instead a natural continuation and more importantly revelation for its central couple. The best comedies are able to balance the humor and heart and thankfully this one has both in hefty supply, preventing it from feeling like a funny, but hollow narrative exercise.
The only minor issue the film suffers from is the pacing of its first act. While it does an effective job establishing Joe and Angela’s rocky relationship and troubled home life, the film takes a little too long to arrive at its core concept and introduce its supporting players. Not only that, but prolonging their guests from arriving put the film at risk of making its two central characters nearly too unlikable with their nearly ceaseless arguments and venomous verbal sparring. Thankfully, once Piña and Hawk arrive, the story and characters are able to breathe and evolve in a way that much more successfully pulls the viewer in and immerses them in this wildly unpredictable evening.
4.5 out of 5 Stars.
The Invite is a fiery carnival of chaos and fun, delivering a comedy that is as wildly unpredictable as it is hilarious and emotionally profound. This talented cast, coupled with Jones and McCormack’s razor sharp script and Wilde’s steady hand behind the wheel, help make this comedy one of the year’s very best films. It’ll make audiences laugh until it hurts, but more importantly leave them with plenty of thought provoking conversations to have at their own dinner tables.
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