By Dan Skip Allen

“The Invite” is a film that premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. It’s directed by Olivia Wilde (Booksmart). She also stars in the movie opposite Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, and Penelope Cruise. It’s based on the Spanish film called “The People Upstairs” and was adapted into a screenplay by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones. It has a biting wit and incredible dialogue to go along with it. It deals with the relationships between two different couples who live in the same building on different floors from each other. 

Angela (Olivia Wilde) is a woman who has set up a dinner for her husband Joe (Seth Rogen) and their upstairs neighbors Pina (Penelope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton). Before dinner, there is a bit of tension between the Wilde and Rogen characters. Their marriage isn’t exactly going great. They tend to argue about a lot of things. Having their carefree neighbors over hopefully will change that. They have been overheard having noisy sex. This becomes a bone of contention between the couples but eventually moves into a different kind of discussion. This opens up a lot of pent-up emotions between each of the couples they didn’t know existed beforehand. 

This film is a chamber piece, which means it all takes place in one location. Wilde, as the director, takes advantage of the one location. She uses multiple rooms to have conversations between characters, the kitchen, and the office of the Rogen character, for example. Most of the film takes place in the living room, where a new carpet is the focal point of the conversation. A window adjacent to the living room causes a bit of tension because of who can see down into it and who sometimes walks naked by it to get attention. She also uses mirrors to get various angles on the same shot more than once. The cinematography is immaculately executed from the beginning to the end of this movie. This is Hitchcockian level camera work. 

Wilde is an actress who has been in a lot of different kinds of movies. Action films, rom-coms, dramas, and everything in-between. She has found her niche in directing, though. She hasn’t directed a film since “Don’t Worry Darling” in 2022, but her most  popular and successful movie was her directorial debut “Booksmart” in 2019. She seems to have a knack for directing films with strong female characters even though there are men in her films. She’s directed different kinds of movies. One is a sci-fi period piece,  the other is a comedy, and this one is a straightforward drama set in one location. She gives viewers a good perspective on what she wants to say in her films. I’m so excited to see what she tackles next.

Rogen has had a lot of success lately doing his series on Apple TV called “The Studio”. He’s won a bunch of Emmy Awards for this hilarious comedy series set in the Hollywood movie scene. He plays the head of a studio, as the title suggests. He takes his talent for quick wit and funny banter and uses it to be the funny man between these four relatively serious people. Every time one of the other three says something profound or important, he has a line or funny dialogue to follow, which made the audience I was in, including myself, laugh out loud. His funny banter throughout the film with the other three actors broke up the monotony regarding the serious conversation. It was a much needed distraction from everything else that was going on in the film. He still has it no matter what kind of project he is in. That’s the sign of a truly funny guy.

Norton has had his ups and down in his career hitting some great highs with “Primal Fear” “25th Hour” and “The Incredible Hulk” but lately he has been a miss instead of a hit with the second installment in the Knives Out Trilogy, “Glass Union” and others. This role, hopefully, will be his resurgence, though. He is doing some terrific work opposite the other three actors in this ensemble. I loved his banter with Rogen and his romantic side with Cruz. The stuff with Wilde seemed a bit awkward, but maybe that was the point of these scenes. He has a playful attitude in this movie, which is different from other roles I’ve seen him play. I want more of this in the future from him.

Cruz is an Oscar winning actress from her role in “Vickie Cristina Barcelona” opposite Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson. She made her bones though working in her native Spanish language with acclaimed director Pedro Almadovar in films such as “Volver”. She’s done a lot of dramatic work, but she’s also done action films and fantasy movies as well. She sometimes can be funny in her movie roles, and here she’s a bit of both dramatic and funny. And she speaks some of her native tongue, Spanish. as well. His playful nature opposite Rogen was pretty cool. She also played into her sensuality with the Norton character, but it was her candid nature with the Wilde character that brought her performance full circle. It showed why she was nominated for Oscars and won one in her career, and she’ll probably be up for more in the future.

Besides the cinematography in the film, the score by Devonte Hynes was also exceptional. The score had some playful aspects to it and some very dramatic moments.  It played like an opera to some extent.  When the drama ratcheted up, the score would become low and dramatic. When things were funny and the banter was flowing, the score was lighter and used a lesser tone. He’s mixed up the aspects of the music so well. It’s not just one thing that this music will be known for in this movie. It’s multiple kinds of melodies and stanzas. I like that with a score. Hynes will hopefully become a known composer in the future after this wonderful score.

“The Invite” has multiple meanings. Most people would call this a double entendre. Where a word or phrase means multiple things. The film is split into two distinct parts, and both are interesting, but once the characters split off, that’s when the movie becomes more interesting. The second half of the film has more biting commentary about relationships and marriages. It shows how people can fall in and out of relationships. The four main actors do a great job of bringing the script to life. The dialogue is witty, and there is a lot of funny banter between all of the characters. Wilde’s direction brought the one location to life. She used every inch of the apartment for her disposal. This location became a character in the film. The music was also very strong. This is one of the best movies I’ve seen all year, and it tackles very strong material that couples of all ages, creeds, races, and religions should watch. This was a fantastic chamber piece that gave off vibes of classic Hitchcock films from the past. It makes me want to watch a couple right now.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 stars