Director: Olivia Wilde
Cast: Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, Edward Norton
Screenplay: Will McCormack, Rashida Jones
107 mins. Rated R for sexual material, language throughout, and drug use.

I’m a sucker for a single location dialogue-rich movie because they are just so difficult to accomplish with any strong merit. I frequently think back on Ingmar Bergman’s ability to have strong films full of relatable and energizing performances of merely a few people engaging in discussion for the entirety of the run time, and he even have a two-hander in a single location called After the Rehearsal, in which a theater director and his new lead share in a discussion at the theater for the entire movie, and it’s great. With The Invite, director and star Olivia Wilde (Don’t Worry Darling) has accomplished this feat with shining stars and a whole lot of raunch. In less than two hours, Wilde’s film is full of laughs and heart with a deeply humanizing final note that makes it one of the best movies of the year and one of the funniest films of the decade.

After a long day at work, Joe (Seth Rogen, Superbad) gets home to learn that his wife Angela (Wilde) has made plans for them to host their upstairs neighbors for dinner: Pina (Penelope Cruz, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) and Hawk (Edward Norton, Fight Club). Upon arrival, it’s clear that tension exists on every front for Joe, who feels estranged from his wife and at odds with Pina and Hawk and their loud nightly activity. As the two couples push and pull themselves and each other, Joe and Angela learn that, in addition to the secrets they’ve been hiding from each, Pina and Hawk have a secret agenda for wanting to dine with them.

Opening with a scathing rebuke against marriage from Oscar Wilde, there’s the sense that The Invite holds a lot of anger and frustration for Wilde following a very public divorce, and while I’m not one to be terribly interested in the personal lives of filmmakers (I’m interested in the work), it’s hard not to note a sense of cynicism in the momentum of The Invite, a movie that showcases a marriage on the brink of destruction, with trouble ever-bubbling under every surface, sentence, and look. Joe’s anger toward Pina and Hawk stems from a frustration in what is missing from his own relationship and self. Likewise with Angela’s pining over the couple, hopelessly seeing their happiness and wanting to emulate that for herself.

The screenplay is a sharp and biting but very funny piece of writing from Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, and Wilde is able to give it a lot of life on the screen. Even now, removed from the film by a few days, I’m more than a little captivated by how she was able to make this story as funny as it becomes while never sacrificing the truth of the piece and avoiding schmaltzifying it or looking down on the central characters. An small but important detail is when several of the central arguments take over the narrative and characters are all talking over each other, I still felt as though I could every side’s opinion shouted over one another, and the conflict never got lost in the shuffle. That takes a careful stepping of dialogue, almost like a dance, and this cast is able to accomplish it. This is truly Wilde’s best work as a director without any doubt.

What I appreciate most about the four performances is that, while Hawk and Pina are a little over-the-top, they are always real and reachable, and each of these four characters has their worldview challenged. Oftentimes, it’s just the central couple that is coming apart at the realization that their relationship isn’t as strong, in their mind, as the other couple, but I think Hawk and Pina walk away from the narrative with questions of their own and imperfections and things to think on. The interplay is strong, and there are moments where each of them is alone with each of the others, and all of them are equally fascinating.

The Invite is insanely funny, but never at the expense of the character moments, which makes it all the more powerful that I missed some of the humor due to laughing so hard. It’s rare to see a movie that can inspire such laughter and sadness and a bit of hope as well, all at once. It functions a bit like a raunchier Bergman character study, and I can’t wait to watch it again. It’s certainly the best comedy of the year, and one of the best of the 2020s.

4½/5
-Kyle A. Goethe