If you had told me in 2022 as I sat and suffered through Olivia Wilde’s excruciating Don’t Worry Darling that her next film, the magnificent The Invite, would be perhaps the best film of 2026, I would have laughed in your face. But to my absolute surprise, it is.
An beautifully uncomplicated film, thankfully devoid of Harry Styles tapdance sequences and unnuanced gender politics, The Invite follows two couples Joe and Angela (portrayed by Seth Rogen and Wilde herself), and Pína and Hawk (played by Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) who get together for a small housewarming party to celebrate Joe and Angela’s new renovations.
As the night progresses, it becomes clear that Joe and Angela’s relationship is on the rocks, and Pína and Hawk attempt to help their issues by inviting them to partake in a mysterious and exciting game. The film is, without hyperbole, the funniest I’ve seen this decade, but what makes it a compelling and profound portrayal of a failing relationship on top of that humour is how it goes about portraying the foundation of Joe and Angela’s marital failure, emphasising that it is not because they have fallen out of love with each other. Neither one of them has had an affair, they both agree politically, and they’re loving parents to a daughter that adores them. The relationship has failed because they have simply stopped trying. Their dysfunction is borne entirely by allowing themselves to slide into a bland monotony which transforms their relationship into a chore.
Rogen and Wilde portray this in a way that is nothing short of masterful. The viewer understands instantly that these are two people who, yes, love each other very much, but cannot go on living with each other. Their undeniable chemistry is transmuted into a mild antagonism by the chaos of their dysfunctional relationship and environment, and as a result, their performances are maybe the best they’ve ever given. Cruz and Norton are utilised incredibly as a foil to the former couple, both performances defined by a cool spontaneity and erotic passion that exists entirely in opposition to Joe and Angela’s sexless and chaotic monotony. The strength of these performances and the relationships between can be thanked in part to the film’s incredibly tight screenplay but perhaps more importantly to Wilde’s pitch-perfect direction. There are no adequate words to describe how astonishing it is to go from a film as bad as Don’t Worry Darling to one as good as this.
The entire film flows in a way that is so absolutely enrapturing, which is owed to Wilde’s sequential shooting approach, where the film was shot in chronological order so the emotional reality of the film and the nature of the relationships between its characters progress naturally, a choice that is reflected marvelously on screen. It is perhaps one of the best-directed films I’ve seen in the past year, and positions Wilde as a promising new voice in American cinema. The film’s editing and cinematography are also wonderful. The rhythmic and hypnotic nature of the former combining well with the deliberate beauty of the latter. Overall, I sincerely doubt that you will see many films this year that are better than The Invite and you will absolutely regret not seeing such a profound, intimate, and hilarious film on the big screen.
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