The Invite: Secondhand Embarrassment Has Never Been This Fun

Olivia Wilde is currently riding high. The director (“Don’t Worry Darling”) and actress (“Tron: Legacy”) appears in cult director Gregg Araki’s new film, “I Want Your Sex,” which drew a lot of attention at the Sundance Festival. Now Wilde is launching her third feature as a filmmaker. In “The Invite,” she also stars in one of the leading parts. The sharp-edged relationship comedy about love, sex, and unfulfilled desires has earned enthusiastic reviews around the world.

“The best stories are the ones you recognize yourself in,” says actor Edward Norton in an interview with a German news agency in London. “You can laugh at a good joke. But when you see yourself in it, that’s a very different kind of laugh.”

An Evening of Uncomfortable Truths

Angela (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogen) find themselves in the throes of a marriage crisis. She is increasingly worn down by a stagnant routine and tries to compensate by decorating the inherited apartment. He is grappling with a failed career as a musician, now working as a music teacher. The bedroom has been quiet for years. Late at night they hear their neighbors in the flat above living what sounds like a wildly active sex life.

Angela invites Pina (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) to dinner. She admires them—and especially Pina. Joe, in a sour mood, wants to cancel. “We can’t cancel. We have no friends,” Angela says. Joe would rather complain about the nighttime noise. The two argue, and the guests, already at the door, overhear the clash.

While Angela tries to gloss over the situation, Joe makes his aversion plain. Yet the self-assured, unconventional guests quickly upend the tense, heteronormative couple. Over wine and joints, a surprisingly candid discussion about relationships, sex, and unfulfilled needs unfolds. When Pina and Hawk reveal the real reason for their visit, the evening takes an unexpected turn—and then another.

Between Secondhand Embarrassment and Fascination

From the outset the mood feels oppressive and uneasy. Then comes the secondhand embarrassment. Yet it’s also mesmerizing to watch how things unfold and how the night spirals out of control. Viewers become curious observers—like neighbors in the stairwell who pause to listen because something intriguing is happening behind the door.

“I think many people will recognize themselves most in Joe and Angela,” Norton says. “You feel for them, you’re glad it isn’t happening to you—and perhaps secretly wish some aspects of it could be part of your own life. That’s where the laughter comes from.”

The film’s rapid, razor-edged conversations are its true strength. The four leads repeatedly interrupt one another, spar with quick retorts, and confront painful truths. “The conversations are the action scenes,” Wilde says in the interview. “The goal is to make these conversations stand out.”

A Chamber Piece Based on a Theater Play

“The Invite” is based on the Spanish film “Sentimental” (2020), which director Cesc Gay adapted from his own theater piece. The source material has already inspired several international adaptations, including Switzerland’s “Die Nachbarn von oben” (2023), the Czech film “V dobrém i zlém” (2024), and the Korean version “Witjip saramdeul (The People Upstairs)” (2025).

As in the stage production, the entire story unfolds over a little more than 100 minutes inside Angela and Joe’s apartment. Thanks to a well-executed set design—Angela has a knack for interior decorating, Hawk for carpets—and multiple room changes, the film is visually engaging. More than anything though, it’s the actors’ expressions that do the heavy lifting. “Our cinematographer, Adam Nubarbera, told me early on: ‘We turn faces into landscapes,'” Wilde notes. Norton adds: “A couple that openly discusses highly intimate sexual topics isn’t inherently funny. But watching their eyes widen in shock as they utter these things—that’s funny.”

Wilde Aims to Spark Bold Conversations
Olivia Wilde hopes her film will spark courageous discussions in real life, encouraging people to pull out all of their most uncomfortable memories—the conversations they’ve never dared to have.

Edward Norton offers a tip for moviegoers: “I really think you should see this kind of film with a group—four or six people, maybe with a few couple friends. And afterwards you simply see where the conversation about the film takes you.”

“The Invite” provides ample material, to be sure. Rarely has secondhand embarrassment been this entertaining. The familiar, everyday setup, the cleverly crafted screenplay, and the superbly cast ensemble make this an engaging and very human comedy.