Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Lindsay Traves | Film | June 27, 2026
When I saw the trailer for The Invite, a messy tale of an uptight couple inviting over another for an evening that devolves into discussions of group sex, I immediately assumed it had some connection to 2015’s The Overnight. Both read as sex comedies about unsuspecting new neighbors and an increasingly zany evening. But The Invite shut me up quickly, as this one is actually based on a 2020 Spanish film, which is based on an earlier stage play, one that’s been remade in Italy, Switzerland, France, South Korea, and now the United States. I guess lots of the world has thoughts about sexual repression and challenging marriages.
For this version, Wilde directs from a script penned by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones. Theirs has bickering couple, Joe and Angela (Seth Rogen and Wilde) hosting bohemian lovers, Pina and Hawk (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton). They’ve a few things to discuss: Angela and Joe want to apologize about renovation noise and inquire about the others’ loud sex, and Pena and Hawk want to scope out the renovation and apologize for their sex noise. It’s initially a clattering of discomfort as a mishmash of personality types are forced to manage awkward social conventions that ultimately devolves into cavalier sexual advances and challenges to comfortable relationships having run dry. It’s funny, messy, and tense but it’s difficult to sustain the momentum for the entire runtime with a cast that becomes increasingly unlikeable.
If there’s a weak spot in the otherwise snappy staccato dialog, it’s what comes from Rogen’s Joe. It’s hard to guess what was in the screenplay and what came about from in-camera riffing, but as the obnoxious schlub husband, Joe is played like a detestable rude buffoon. The sizzling dynamic relies on each character bringing individual clashing idiosyncrasies and it’s a riot when Angela is having a poetic discussion about rugs and paint with Hawk, or Pina is smoking a joint with Joe, but it loses itself when Joe becomes an irredeemable antagonist. The relationship dynamics are hard to explore when an “is this working?” tale relies on one member of a foursome being unlikeable.
While the dynamics ultimately suffer for this inclusion, there are plenty of moments of raucous fun. Wilde slips easily into the position of an uptight wife, and brings reactions and physical comedy (like smoothly dumping a burnt soufflé) that keep the pep. Cruz is stellar as the sage impossible unicorn woman who is sexually liberated but has no time for fools. The MVP is Norton who plays tender and warm, schecky and dense, while remaining desirable enough to make it believable Pena would be with him.
Camera work makes use of the enclosed space, and moments set up geography which allows for story elements to unfold in such an enclosed space. Set design is a bit cluttered for view but works with Angela’s millennial Pinterest design tastes that become a petty battle later on.
The Invite wants to ask questions about relationship dynamics and what it means to be happy and in a relationship. It lingers in the grand tradition of couples bonding over judging other couples, then dances in the space of mean and unhappy people. Where it might have been a better canvas for exploring troubled but fixable relationships, or the reality that not every relationship works just because it’s worked in the past, by pushing it into a lopsided story of an antagonizing spouse, it becomes a bit of a “what horrible thing is he going to say next?” and “am I still going to laugh?”
The Invite will be released to limited theaters June 26, 2026 and will go wide and nation wide in Canada on July 10, 2026.
