Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Invite’ on HBO Max, a Robust Four-Hander Comedy Directed by and Starring Olivia Wilde

To call The Invite (now on HBO Max) a four-way is a literalism bearing, y’know, implications. The literal: Director Olivia Wilde — following up psychodrama Don’t Worry Darling with a psychocomedy — co-stars with Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton in a dialogue-driven adaptation of Cesc Gay’s Spanish film Sentimental. The implicative: The movie’s about sex. And relationships — but it might ultimately be more about simply making us laugh at neurotic middle-aged people.

THE INVITE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: Joe (Rogen) just gets through the day, miserably, quarter-heartedly guiding his classical-music students through rehearsal before taking a grueling bike/subway ride home. Angela (Wilde) vigorously, almost nervously, rolls out a new living-room rug and prepares charcuterie like her life depends on it. They’re a long-married couple with a 12-year-old daughter currently at a sleepover — and Angela sees an opportunity to connect with their upstairs neighbors. Their upstairs neighbors, who have been connecting with each other rather loudly and at all hours, to the point where Joe and Angela wonder which is “the growler” and which does all the whimpering. When they reach orgasm. Just to be clear.

The sexnoise only adds to the tension in what sure seems to be their long-sexless home. Joe is weary and depressed with a chronically sore back. Angela is jittery and anxious and barely sits still. He’s not happy that she invited the serial hump-and-moaners over without much advance notice. She wants the company of some “cool” people for wine and cheese. They’re somewhere between a bicker and a blowout when KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. Pina (Cruz) and Hawk (Norton) are at the door.

These two. They’re effortless in their confidence and physical beauty. Joe’s response is nuclear-grade passive-aggressive sarcasm. Angela’s response is nearly hyperventilating her way into a panic attack in an attempt to make everything perfect. Pina and Hawk are holistic progressive types who sometimes — rudely — slip into speaking Spanish to each other, and are as open with their feelings as Joe and Angela are closed. And by “feelings” I mean “sexual freedom.” The only thing that unites Joe and Angela in this moment is the revelation that all the noise is from Pina and Hawk’s wild sex parties. Joe and Angela launch a who-what-how-when-where inquisition and Pina and Hawk give answers. Are Joe and Angela interested? Like interested interested? It seems as if their uptight vibe has considerably loosened. 

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Take Michael Angelo Covino’s Splitsville — a movie you probably haven’t seen but need to — and merge it with a single-location stage adaptation like Carnage. 

Performance Worth Watching: It’s a tough call, determining whether Rogen’s withering cynicism or Wilde’s persistent agitation is funnier — but Wilde gets the nod since her performance becomes a form of inspired physical comedy.

Sex And Skin: A couple of steamy shots, but with no bits shown.

Our Take: A high-energy mostly-busted-marriage comedy yields several big, big laughs before The Invite downshifts into relatively contemplative drama, and Wilde oversees an impressively smooth transition of tone. Any insights the film yields — how the lack of open and honest communication in marriage renders deep-rut resentment — are familiar and obvious, but the means of exploring them are often laugh-out-loud hilarious, rooted in sharp dialogue (via screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormack) and four strong, consistent performances.

That makes The Invite one half great — the very funny first half — and one half merely very good. Wilde’s superlative and thoughtful visual M.O. frames the characters in a suggestive manner that lures their subtleties into the open — jealousies, insecurities, smugness, overconfidence. The plot plays out unpredictably, Wilde effectively transferring the interpersonal tension from screen to audience. What it’s all “about” isn’t as important as what we feel, whether it’s the exhilaration of laughter or curiosity toward characters who are either robust with self-reflection or desperately avoiding it.  

Our Call: Wilde’s best behind-the-camera effort yet, The Invite is equally funny, smart and smartly directed. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.