THE INVITE

THE INVITE begins with a dinner between two neighbouring couples and steadily dismantles everything they thought they knew about each other. Joe and Angela, played by Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde, are stuck in a marriage that has become increasingly difficult. Across the table are Pína and Hawk, played by Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, whose apparently more adventurous relationship becomes the catalyst for a conversation Joe and Angela weren’t remotely prepared to have.

Wilde keeps most of the film contained around the four actors, allowing attraction, jealousy, resentment and curiosity to accumulate through conversation rather than elaborate plot mechanics. The screenplay comes from Rashida Jones and Will McCormack and adapts Cesc Gay’s Spanish film THE PEOPLE UPSTAIRS. What initially looks like a sophisticated dinner-party comedy becomes an increasingly uncomfortable examination of marriage, sexual honesty and what happens when one couple encounters another operating by completely different rules.

THE INVITE premiered at Sundance in January 2026 and quickly became one of the festival’s biggest talking points, triggering a major bidding contest before A24 acquired the film. Since its theatrical release, it has become one of the most critically acclaimed comedies of 2026 so far. What could easily have become a broad comedy about couples behaving badly instead develops into a funny, uncomfortable and surprisingly perceptive film about what long-term relationships look like when people finally start saying the things they normally keep to themselves.

The film also arrives at an interesting point in Seth Rogen’s career. After years as one of the defining faces of American stoner and studio comedy, his work in 2025 began leaning toward older, more anxious characters confronting money, status, work and middle age, particularly in THE STUDIO and GOOD FORTUNE. THE INVITE continues that shift by putting his comic instincts inside a marriage that has accumulated years of frustration. I’m putting it into our popular Friday evening slot at the end of the working week. After five days of work, I think we’ll all be ready for a laugh.