Direction: Olivia Wilde
Country: USA
The Invite, the third directorial feature by Olivia Wilde, who also stars, is a ballsy, raunchy comedy-drama filled with tension and direct, funny lines. The plot, co-written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones (collaborating 14 years after Celeste & Jesse Forever), is an adaptation of the Spanish film The People Upstairs (2021) and focuses on Angela (Wilde), a housewife who frequently forgets to breathe when anxious, and her husband, Joe (Seth Rogen), a frustrated music teacher. Their marriage is irreparably strained, and they definitely need something new and exciting in their lives. That opportunity arrives when Angela invites their noisy, nosy upstairs neighbors, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penélope Cruz), a former firefighter and a psychotherapist/sexologist, respectively, to a dinner party.
Complaints, apologies, and unexpected revelations are fueled by joints, tequila, and intense libido. Astonishingly acted by all four actors, this provocative, fast-paced film impresses with the power with which it frames contentions, different points of view, embarrassments, and resolutions. This is finely judged filmmaking by Wilde.
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