The Invite film review: Sparkling sex comedy
Anxious, chaotic and funny, Olivia Wilde’s tightly constructed chamber piece trains a magnifying glass on the sexual hang-ups of the modern age
A reliable source of juicy drama, the disastrous dinner party movie is one of the most exhilaratingly attention-grabbing genres. It’s given us cultural milestone Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, Dogme classic Festen, Burton and Taylor tearing strips off each other in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? and underrated 2015 horror gem The Invitation, while The Bear did wonders with the format on TV in its legendary ‘Fishes’ episode. Sparkling sex comedy The Invite proudly joins that throng. Written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones and directed by Olivia Wilde, it’s a US remake of well-regarded 2020 Spanish farce The People Upstairs, while influences closer to home are evident in a film dedicated to Diane Keaton that evokes Woody Allen at his best/least problematic.
Accompanied by frantic, tension-amplifying strings and sumptuously shot on celluloid, the film is set almost entirely in a San Francisco apartment. Olivia Wilde’s insecure Angela invites her upstairs neighbours round, blindsiding her curmudgeonly and combustible partner Joe (Seth Rogen). The combination of Angela’s excruciating attempts to impress sex therapist Piña (Penélope Cruz) and ex-firefighter Hawk (Edward Norton), and Joe’s hostility towards them is hysterical even before the pair turn out to be swingers.
Wilde stormed onto the directing scene with 2019’s Booksmart and does an equally impressive job here, with her deft, retro-infused direction cranking up the awkwardness and harnessing the power of a howlingly funny, battle-of-the-sexes script. Performances are pivotal in a chamber piece and these are perfectly pitched. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a more complementary quartet, with Rogen truth-bombing with aplomb, Cruz preposterously sexy and Norton a riot of mischievous glee. But it’s Wilde herself that edges it, delivering screwball energy in spades and more than a hint of Keaton, as she turns anxiety into an art.
The Invite is in cinemas from Friday 3 July.