Sundance ‘26: ‘THE INVITE’ A Zesty Swinger Comedy That’s Equally Hilarious and Therapeutic

Joe and Angela’s relationship is in the dumps. The second Joe returns home from his mediocre job at a middling music conservatory, their bickering begins. Taking shoes off at the door, neglecting to pick up a bottle of wine, forgetting about plans — all seem like ripe opportunities to launch a new feud. Their married-couple’s rocky connection is further tested when Angela invites over the upstairs neighbors, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penélope Cruz), for an impromptu dinner party. Joe doesn’t want them over in the first place, harboring resentment over their loud, late-night sex. What begins as awkward conversation and flimsy attempts at forging new friendships peels into Hawk and Pina’s real reason for coming: to invite Joe and Angela to engage in sexual extracurriculars.

Directed with a breakneck wealth of hilarious energy by Olivia Wilde and working off an absolutely zesty, laugh-a-minute script from Rashida Jones, Cesc Gay, and Will McCormack, The Invite pulls off the rare feat of making its audience laugh relentlessly while also exploring heavy themes. Most notably, what should be the true purpose of marriage: supporting and loving one another through change. A firsthand account of how relationships left untended crack and fizzle with time. Joe and Angela’s relationship is informed by Oscar Wilde’s infamous quote about marriage: “One should always be in love — that’s the reason one should never marry.” While we eventually get a sense of what initially drew them together (and know that it’s likely their teenage daughter keeping them together), every interaction is laced with resentment, unease.

Conversely, Pina and Hawk clearly adore one another. And yes, this could be due to the fact that they’ve only been together for a year, but they share a mutual understanding of what each other requires of them and therefore work in harmony, in stark contrast to Joe and Angela’s blatant toxicity. But they too have their problems, as does any functioning marriage.

Wilde orchestrates the whole thing with masterful command. Her critically adored debut Booksmart graded to a much more reserved response for her sophomore feature Don’t Worry Darling, but The Invite is her best work yet. Violently funny and then bracingly sincere, Wilde’s direction is calibrated to capture both the heightened absurdity and inner turmoil rotting away Joe and Angela’s connection. The script from Jones, Gay, and McCormack is bracingly hysterical, so dense with overlapping jokes that even the little throwaway lines are funnier than what you’ll find in your run-of-the-mill studio comedy. Everything is pitched so highly, so much breathless bickering and considering and shrieking and shouting, that when The Invite finally gets quiet, reflective, you feel every breath.

The quartet of actors are all outstanding. Seth is playing an amped-up version of himself: all dry humor and self-effacing smarm. Edward Norton perfectly channels a kind of possibly-faux-enlightened dude, but beneath his flirtatious façade lies the reality that he’s a fire captain who’s renamed himself “Hawk.” Penélope Cruz is intoxicating as Pina. You don’t dare look away from her for a moment. She just commands the screen and is a good, calming, stoic counterbalance to the more frantic energy of Rogan’s Joe and Wilde’s Angela. But it’s Wilde’s nervy, anxiety-wracked turn as Angela that really steals the show, especially impressive since she is also behind the camera directing.

The Invite is the kind of film Sundance was made for: sharp, hilarious, emotionally risky, and powered by four actors all operating at full voltage. It’s a sex comedy with a soul, a relationship drama that understands how easily comfort curdles into contempt. And with Wilde at the helm, it doesn’t just titillate, it fully invites you in.

CONCLUSION: ‘The Invite’ from Olivia Wilde is a wildly funny swinger comedy that explores how relationships open, close, and end in hilarious and heartfelt ways. Seth Rogan, Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton are all fantastic.