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The Invite (15)

Cast: Penelope Cruz, Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Edward Norton
Genre: Comedy
Author(s): Will McCormack, Rashida Jones
Director: Olivia Wilde
Release Date: 03/07/2026
Running Time: 107mins
Country: US
Year: 2026

San Francisco music teacher Joe arrives home with a sore back from riding his fold-away bike, hoping for some peace and quiet so he can continue to marinade in the unrelenting misery of his life and, perhaps, avoid another argument with his wife Angela. No such luck because Angela has invited their upstairs neighbours, Pina and Hawk, for an impromptu dinner party, comprising an impressive charcuterie and a cheese souffle baking in the oven.

LondonNet Film Review

The Invite (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Let’s talk about sex. Coyly, candidly, crudely and comically. The characters in Olivia Wilde’s provocative comedy bump and grind through animated conversations about carnality, and the emotional fallout from these deep dives into desire is shattering. Adapted by screenwriters Will McCormack and Rashida Jones from the 2020 Spanish comedy The People Upstairs, which began life as a stage play, The Invite is a skilfully executed four-hander that explores the shifting power dynamics in modern relationships with barbed humour…

San Francisco music teacher Joe (Seth Rogen) arrives home with a sore back from riding his fold-away bike, hoping for some peace and quiet so he can continue to marinade in the unrelenting misery of his life and, perhaps, avoid another argument with his wife Angela (Olivia Wilde). No such luck because Angela has invited their upstairs neighbours for an impromptu dinner party, comprising an impressive charcuterie and a cheese souffle baking in the oven.

Joe isn’t the biggest fan of Pina (Penelope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), whose high-decibel lovemaking echoes through the ceiling and repeatedly wakes Joe and Angela in the early hours of the morning. When the neighbours descend armed with a homemade tart, Joe makes scant effort to conceal his disdain. “We love a contentious environment,” grins retired firefighter Hawk, who is used to putting out bigger blazes than the bonfire of social niceties being lit in front of him. Pina calls upon her training as a psychotherapist and sexologist to dissect the disharmony between Joe and Angela and she asks challenging questions about fidelity and freedom. As wine flows and lips loosen, the bohemian guests openly share their sex positivity and the intrigued hosts quiz Pina and Hawk about “the procedural protocol” of polyamory.

Prefaced by one of Oscar Wilde’s pithy bon mots about matrimony, The Invite is a smart, sexy and frenetically paced English-language remake of an award-winning study of kinky consent, which never enjoyed an official cinema release in the UK and Ireland. For her third feature in the director’s chair after Booksmart and Don’t Worry Darling, actor Wilde approached the material with its stage origins in mind, rehearsing dialogue-heavy scenes then shooting in chronological order so actors experienced the same tumult as their characters. Shifts in tone from playful inquisition to piercing interrogation are abrupt but feel largely organic on screen.

Rogen and Wilde deliver a masterclass in snide asides and bickering, talking over each other and Devonte Hynes’ intrusive and discordant string-led score while a visibly amused Cruz and Norton join us as witnesses to the mounting emotional destruction before they deal with their own issues. Perhaps Oscar Wilde was right – the proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunderstanding.

– Jo Planter

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