The Invite (dir. Olivia Wilde)

by Jack Martin | Jul 5, 2026

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 107 mins

UK Distributor: Black Bear Films

UK Release Date: 3 July 2026

WHO’S IN THE INVITE?

Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Olivia Wilde (director), Rashida Jones and Will McCormack (writers), Ben Browning, Megan Ellison and David Permut (producers), Devonté Hynes (composer), Adam Newport-Berra (cinematographer), Anthony Boys and Yorgos Mavropsaridis (editors)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A couple (Rogen and Wilde) invite their neighbours (Cruz and Norton) for an unpredictable evening…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE INVITE?

“What a dump!” The infamous line from the vintage Bette Davis movie Beyond the Forest was famously borrowed by the classic play-turned-movie Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and you half-expect it to be used in director Olivia Wilde’s The Invite too, as it also, somewhat ironically, owes much of its existence to that quote as much as it does the latter film.

The dump in this instance, though, is in and of itself ironic. Wilde’s movie, situated almost entirely within a single living space – as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? did before it – surrounds itself with so much fanciful middle-class décor, from illustrious framed paintings fixed on each wall to charcuterie boards containing some of the nicest meats and cheeses from local delicatessens to a luxurious new rug purchased at a nearby flea market, that one could almost never suspect the trashiness that lives within this prison of bougie excess. Yet, for all its cosy interior design, it’s clear from the outset that the people inhabiting this space are the true mess, always one blow-out argument away from being tossed right into the dump that Davis once exaggerated so aggressively.

But that is why The Invite, with all its high-pressure bickering and multi-layered insults, is such a fascinating film. Wilde, working from a screenplay by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, unnervingly captures the interminable strife of a relationship where neither party is ready to admit that things have reached boiling point, and how outside influence – say, in the form of visiting neighbours – can be either the key that unlocks a brighter future or the lit match that burns it all down.

In the opening moments of The Invite, a remake of the Spanish film The People Upstairs, we are introduced to our central couple Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde). Joe is a musician who’s also something of a one-hit wonder, after a song from his indie-rock band days briefly gained traction before fizzing out, now leaving him as a music teacher at a low-rent school. Angela, a former artist who gave up her career some time ago, has been busy redesigning their swanky apartment – the very same one that Joe grew up in – but is now hurriedly ensuring that everything looks and feels perfect for an impromptu dinner party she’s organised for that very evening. It’s when Joe arrives home, his back on the verge of collapse after difficulties with his new foldup bike, that we get the first of many hints that their marriage is far from blissful; they find virtually any excuse to argue, her high-strung perfectionism clashing with his sardonic bitterness, and even she is on the verge of revealing that both are miserable when, in an inspired smash-cut to a title card, the guests arrive.

Said guests are Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pína (Penélope Cruz), themselves a couple as well as Joe and Angela’s neighbours, and to say they couldn’t be more different would be a major understatement. Him being a retired firefighter and her an esteemed psychiatrist and sexologist, they’re a lot more easy-going, secure in themselves to an almost fault, and most importantly so in sync with one another that they frequently share asides in Pína’s native Spanish. However, there’s a lingering issue concerning the rather animalistic noises coming from their apartment that Joe is especially keen to hash out, but that eventual conversation sparks an unexpected chain of events which brings both couples together in every possible sense, while also providing at least one of them with clarity surrounding their own relationships between one another.

All throughout Jones and McCormack’s endlessly witty script, filled to the brim with zippy dialogue that is not only funny but sometimes close to rivalling the classic back-and-forths of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? playwright Edward Albee, there is a lingering maturity that constantly toys with the viewer’s emotions. Behind the sharp banter are some very telling notions of spousal discomfort, whether it’s looks of disgust when one utters or is on the verge of uttering something potentially damaging, or disarming body language that shows exactly how a person is more comfortable either with or away from their other half. Wilde, as both a director and a performer, conveys these complex layers with a keen sharpness that transforms the singular and very theatrical environment into something that is unmistakably cinematic, with the filmmaker utilising some grainy film-stock cinematography, fast-paced editing and an invasive jazz score to transform these well-polished yet incomplete walls – literally in some cases, as the couple have yet to decide which shade of the very same kind of blue to paint their bedroom with – into a luscious prison where the only way out is to face the hard-hitting truth.

That is where The Invite leaves its biggest impact, for while it would be a spoiler to dive into exactly what that truth may be, its inevitability and how sensibly the film gets to that point, even when the film briefly transforms into a more erotic display of affection, is remarkable. All four of these characters, as played quite excellently by this astounding quartet of lead actors, easily switch from comedically exaggerated types to genuine people with real desires and sometimes even heartbreaking backstories without disrupting the overall tone, to where you not only share a genuine emotional connection with them but also feel for them whenever they’re forced to confront their harsh realities, in scenes where the performers deliver some of their finest dramatic work in years. It ultimately ends at a point of pure bittersweetness where it’s clear how things are going to go as soon as the credits start rolling, but there’s still a small part of you that wishes they wouldn’t since the writing, the direction, and especially the performances all make their real connection so painfully clear.

However, in a narrative such as the one laid out in The Invite, that’d be wishful thinking. The reality presented in its stead is much more chaotic, and Wilde, in her most accomplished directorial outing to date, keenly shows off that chaos with healthy dollops of humour, sexiness, and genuine character-centric drama to create a magnificent dump of its very own.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Invite is a fascinatingly wired comedy that transcends its theatrical aesthetic into a cinematic portrayal of marital strife that offers no easy answers and, thanks to some carefully constructed filmmaking and an outstanding ensemble cast, presents an all-out display of comedic chaos with raw bittersweetness at its centre.