When the curtain closed on the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Olivia Wilde’s The Invite, starring Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton, emerged as the buzziest title. Wilde’s follow-up to the much-maligned Don’t Worry Darling set off a multi-party bidding war that ended with A24 snagging the film’s distribution rights.
Here’s the synopsis: “Joe and Angela’s marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places. Have they reignited the spark or lit the match that burns it all down?”
This is what Slant’s Taylor Williams said in his Sundance review: “[Will] McCormack and [Rashida] Jones’s script does fine work homing in on Joe and Angela’s neuroses, and Wilde and Rogen are deft at making you see how their characters are victims of the pressure to perform emotional labor. The lead-up to their agreeing to Pina and Hawk helping them to renew their sex life is also very funny, but much of our insight into these characters’ lives comes to us via arguments and monologues that drag in noticeable ways.”
See the trailer and poster below.
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
