Full Breakdown
Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite”: A Chamber Comedy on Marriage and Desire
7/2/2026, 11:33:57 AM
Dinner Unravels Marriage
Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde) are a couple whose marriage has stalled. They invite upstairs neighbors Hawk (Edward Norton) and Piña (Penélope Cruz) for dinner. The night shifts from a noise complaint to frank talk of sex, a possible foursome, and each partner’s anxieties.
Spanish Play Origin
The film adapts Cesc Gay’s 2020 Spanish movie “The People Upstairs” (also titled “Sentimental”). Rashida Jones and Will McCormack rewrote it for A24, preserving the single-apartment setting. It premiered at Sundance 2026 and later screened in Boston and San Francisco.
Cast & Crew
Olivia Wilde directs and plays Angela; Seth Rogen is Joe; Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton portray Piña and Hawk. Writers Jones and McCormack also scripted the film; Devonté Hynes scores it; therapist Esther Perel consulted on relationship material.
Stats
Runtime 107 minutes; MPAA R for sex, language and drug use. A24 released it in the U.S. on July 1 2026 and in Singapore on July 2 2026. The story stays almost entirely in one apartment.
Impact
Confined to a single room, the film amplifies marital anxiety and the clash between routine and sexual freedom. It nods to classics like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” while offering a modern view of how couples negotiate change, informed by Perel’s therapeutic lens.
Official Responses
Wilde called the film “funny, uncomfortable, and cathartic,” hoping it recalls classic relationship dramas. Rogen said relationships are “high-stakes, very personal, very relatable.” Norton praised his monologue as “surprisingly tender and insightful.” Cruz said the script made her “laugh out loud.” Perel described the approach as “didactic yet relatable.”
Criticism
Critics called Devonté Hynes’s score “intrusive” and said the film’s intensity can be “distracting” in conflict scenes. Some felt the script relied too much on musical cues instead of trusting the dialogue’s natural rhythm.
Conflicts
Sources differ on the original Spanish title, some calling it “The People Upstairs” and others “Sentimental.” No source provides box-office or streaming viewership data, leaving the film’s commercial performance unverified.
Quotes
> “We love a contentious environment.” — Hawk, Edward Norton
> “There was an amazing kind of collective catharsis.” — Olivia Wilde, Director/Actor
> “You people were fucking like monsters.” — Joe, Seth Rogen
> “We only get a few chances for meaningful relationships in life. Sometimes we can have a new relationship with the same person. Up to you.” — Piña, Penélope Cruz
Next
The Invite stays in theaters through August and will move to streaming later in 2026. Wilde’s next film, the comedy “I Want Your Sex,” opens July 31; Rogen returns to his series “The Studio.”
