Film Review: The Invite (dir. Olivia Wilde, 2026)
written and rated by filmmaker Emily Jampel.
The Invite might be the most fun movie I’ve seen in theaters all year, though if I’m being honest, I have not seen that many movies in theaters this year, because most of them don’t look very good.
I initially wanted to see The Invite because I’d heard Esther Perel was a consultant on the film (she was also Olivia Wilde’s former therapist) and, like most of my thirty-something female friends in Brooklyn who listen to relationship self-help podcasts, I am a fan. I saw this movie twice at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. First by myself, and a second time with my partner, whose parents are both therapists.
I love a talky movie, and this is one which features a lot of Olivia Wilde and Seth Rogen, who play married couple Joe and Angela, arguing over each other in a way that is simultaneously hilarious and insufferable. I’ve been a fan of Olivia Wilde since she was on The O.C. (my favorite show of all time) as Alex, the blonde bisexual owner of a local music venue who was in a relationship with Marissa Cooper, Mischa Barton’s character. She also briefly dates Seth Cohen in the show, though this was less important.
Olivia is often typecast as the cool pretty girl, which I get, because she is, in fact, extremely pretty, and also very cool, but I found it extremely refreshing seeing her play a high-strung Xanax-addled people-pleaser who is obsessed with her hot neighbors, played by Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz. Finally a character I can relate to.
In addition to Olivia Wilde, the movie itself is also beautiful. The film is set almost entirely within a San Franciscan apartment, and it’s difficult to make a single location look interesting, let alone cinematic for an hour and forty-seven minutes, but the production design, costume, and camera department really make it happen.
Cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra, who also shot The Last Black Man In San Francisco, Jordan Firstman’s upcoming debut Club Kid, and two episodes of Euphoria Season One (before Sam Levinson decided the entire show needed to be shot on film for some reason), kills it once again. I’ll be the first to say that I’m not sure this needed to be shot on film, but I’m not mad that it was, and honestly find it even more impressive given how great the performances are and the fact that a lot of it was improvised.
Directing and acting in your own film while incorporating improv within an extremely dialogue-heavy script, and shooting on film is an extremely ballsy move, and I love that Olivia Wilde went for it, because it really pays off. The fact that she paid for the 35mm film stock herself because her producers said no makes it even more bad ass.
What else can I say about this film? It’s funny, heartfelt, surprisingly emotional, and gets at something very real about the nature of relationships. The first time I saw this movie, it made me think about my own relationships. The second time I saw it, it made me think about my parents, who were about the same age (early forties) as Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde’s characters in the film at the time that they got divorced. They are now both repartnered.
Imagining my parents at a similar age as these characters helped me picture them not just as angry adults, but as two individuals with their own dreams (many unfulfilled), sexual desires, and a shared history, just trying to figure their shit out. I highly doubt they ever tried to have sex with another couple to save their marriage like Joe and Angela do (spoiler), but I suppose anything is possible.
Depending on your interpretation of the ending and whether you think Joe and Angela’s marriage will last or not probably says a lot about you and your outlook on relationships. I think it’s whatever you want it to be.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
