Olivia Wilde made her directorial debut in 2019 with Booksmart, a fun Superbad-adjacent coming of age comedy about two girls looking for a little mischief before heading off to college. Wilde followed it up by directing Don’t Worry Darling, a 1950s-set suburban freakout that never quite pulled itself off, despite a great leading performance from Florence Pugh.
But with her third directorial effort, the new film The Invite, Olivia Wilde has put all the pieces together, delivering a hilarious, bewildering wild ride of a film. The Invite stars Wilde herself alongside Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton as two neighboring couples hanging out for the first time at a dinner party. What ensues is an awkward, tense, funny, and revealing look at love, sex, marriage, and what it means to age alongside somebody else.
The film is written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones and is based on a 2020 Spanish film called The People Upstairs. In her film, Wilde expertly stages what is virtually the entire movie in one single apartment, letting her camera and blocking set the stage for four powerhouse performances from four seasoned vets.
Norton uses his sly charisma and smarmy oddball magnetism to great effect, Cruz is composed, sexy, smart and cool, Rogen is knocking every line delivery out of the park, and Wilde herself dials the screwball comedy all the way up, using her facial reactions and nervous energy to keep the audience hooked.
What it all amounts to is one of its most interesting and emotionally engaging films of 2026 so far, and it’s also the theatergoing experience that made me laugh the most in years. The Invite is Wilde’s most stripped down and successful film yet.
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