Florida's Film, Television and the Arts Magazine
The Invite - Movie Review by Lisa Blanck
If you’re a fan of The Studio, the TV series starring Seth Rogan, which is the most awarded comedy in Emmy history, The Invite, which also stars Rogan, is tailor-made for you; I am most definitely in that group of supporters. Many times, while watching The Invite, I laughed so hard I was glad I wasn’t swallowing a drink because I would either have started choking or had it come out of my nose. And I wasn’t the only one in the theater saying “OMG, I can’t believe they just said that so matter-of-factly”.
I’ll just use an example: “pegging”. When I say that comes up while the actors are gathered around the cheese platter, everyone I tell starts to laugh.
It’s not in the comedic tone of say, a Young Frankenstein. The Invite’s humor relies more on intensive sarcasm, on watching people become truly uncomfortable and seeing how they react to their situation, on the gleeful giddiness of a dinner party gone out of bounds and completely off the rails.
The film is directed by Olivia Wilde, who stars as Joe’s (Rogan) wife, Angela, along with Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton as Pina and Hawk, the hot, sexy and much cooler than Joe and Angela’s upstairs neighbors.
The writers are Cesc Gay, Will McCormack and Rashida Jones. Now here’s something I just learned while writing this review. Gay is also the writer of The People Upstairs, a 2025 Korean film with exactly the same premise: two married couples meet and have dinner together; there have been some concerns about loud noises coming from each apartment. Comedy ensues.
I’ll assume that everyone connected with The Invite put an Americanized twist on the new film, with Cruz adding in her own Latin flair. Now I’ll have to watch The People Upstairs to compare these two films to see if there’s a cultural difference in humor.
The Invite is rated R and for good reason. There’s definitely sex, drugs and some rock and roll. The outtakes and bloopers must have been outrageous. But over and above the humor, there are many scenes of intense introspection. Each of the characters is given the opportunity to reveal their flaws, their pain, their self-doubt and their loneliness to each other and to the audience, making them exceedingly relatable. Scenes filled with anger and jealousy balance ones brimming with compassion and protectiveness, like waves on a beach. We leave emotionally sated, appreciating what each character brought to the table in The Invite.
