OVERVIEW
The Invite takes place over the course of an evening in a San Francisco apartment, where awkward comedy reveals the cracks in a stalled marriage. Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde) are a couple whose growing resentment has transformed their relationship into a shadow of its former self. With their daughter at a sleepover, Angela invites their upstairs neighbors, Piña (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), for wine and charcuterie. Joe is reluctant, mainly because he wasn’t told beforehand and because these loud, amorous neighbors have been keeping him awake, a situation Angela surprisingly finds appealing. What follows is a night full of awkwardness and unexpected revelations.
BACKGROUND
After Booksmart drew raves and Don’t Worry Darling landed as a disposable, derivative thriller, Wilde saw The Invite as a welcome reset, a chance to get back to basics. The script was an English-language remake of Cesc Gay’s Spanish comedy The People Upstairs, written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, and she wanted this one judged on its own merits and nothing else. She made it small and fast, a 23-day shoot in order, four actors and one apartment, with Rogen and the cast free to rework scenes as they went in a loose, Cassavetes-style rehearsal. Wilde has called it the best experience of her career. The film premiered at Sundance as one of the 2026 festival’s most acclaimed titles and sparked a competitive bidding war, which A24 won.
THE REVIEW
The movie is a clear step up for Wilde, and she feels far more comfortable here as an actor-director than she did as a thriller director. She trusts her cast, lets the performances breathe, and guides scenes that grow increasingly uneasy without losing control of the rhythm. The script usually finds a workable balance between comedy and drama, with jokes that also function as character beats.
The film is at its best whenever Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton are on screen. They bring a more mature, lived-in presence than the lead couple, and the funniest, sharpest moments come from that contrast. Piña explaining a condition to Joe through a metaphor involving his balls, or snapping at him for trying to joke right after Hawk shares something sincere, are the scenes most likely to get real laughs.
That contrast also creates the film’s biggest believability problem. Piña and Hawk feel so far ahead of Joe and Angela that it’s hard to believe they would stay this invested for an entire night, especially when the lead couple can be grating, and the casting widens the gap. Rogen leans into the familiar man-child persona he has been cultivating for two decades, and Wilde’s screen presence carries a natural confidence that the film never fully reconciles with Angela’s insecurities, making the couple’s problems feel a bit manufactured.
Wilde’s direction has strong tone control, but the movie still plays like a collection of very good scenes that never quite amount to a great film. Some turns feel accepted because the script needs them, not because the escalation earns them. And while it is refreshing to see a mainstream American film let adults talk this openly about sex, it can feel more adult-coded than adult-observed, as if the frankness is the point. As a remake of the Spanish 2020 comedy The People Upstairs, it also seems to stop at the shock of description rather than pushing toward sharper punchlines or more genuinely lived-in conclusions.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The actors keep The Invite fun, and the scene-to-scene craft is often sharp, but it never adds up to the comedic and dramatic impact it is aiming for. It is still an improvement for Wilde as a director, and it is refreshing to see a mainstream American comedy go this adult, even if the film ends up feeling more adult-coded than genuinely lived-in.
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- Where to watch
- Rent or buy at Apple TV Store, Amazon Video
- Where to watch
- Coming soonOct 15, 2026
Play trailer
- Original title
- The Invite
- Director
- Olivia Wilde
- Cast
- Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton, Skip Howland, Mel Powell, Rachel Thurow, Mario Valdez
- Rated
- 14A
- Screenwriter
- Cesc Gay, Rashida Jones, Will McCormack
- Composer
- Devonté Hynes
- Cinematography
- Adam Newport-Berra
- Editor
- Yorgos Mavropsaridis, Anthony Boys
- Country
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $12 million
- Box office
- $55.505 million