Across the entire timeline of cinematic history, has there ever been one instance where a dinner party has gone exactly as planned? Along with the guests, the hosts always seem to also invite trouble, with unexpected consequences often being served just before dessert. Murder became the guest of honor in Gosford Park, the titular "bio-exorcist" possesses everyone and forces them to dance to "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" in Beetlejuice, and two friends hide a dead body in a trunk in the middle of the room as part of a sadistic game in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. At the end of the night, no one is going home talking about how great the food and wine were.

That theme of misfortune continues in 2026 with The Invite. The strained hosts are Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde), a couple who seem to have been unhappily married for far more years than they were happily married. He's a languishing band teacher at a not-so-nice academy he has to ride his bike to, and she's always between jobs, filling her days constantly redecorating their San Francisco home, which they can only afford because they inherited it from Joe's parents. Their daughter is the only thing that's keeping them together, with unhappiness and resentment permeating the air at all times.

Living right above them are Piña (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), a couple of perpetual annoyances due to the rather loud way they express their love for each other every night. But they seem cool, and Angela is desperate to make some friends, so she invites them downstairs for a dinner party, which more or less acts as a test to see if her and Joe's relationship is so strained that they can't even pretend to be a couple anymore.

Adapted from the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, The Invite is pitched through a prism of manic anxiety, with rapid-fire dialogue often overlapping with the heavy strings provided by composer Devonté Hynes. The initial bickering between Joe and Angela increases in tempo as they race against the clock to get ready. While still being hilarious on its own terms, it's a relatable window into a decaying relationship verging on incurable.

Between this film, his compelling dramatic turn in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans, and his multi-hyphenate work on his television show The Studio, Rogen has reached a peak in his career. Playing the miserable straight man, he's the Richard Burton to Wilde's Elizabeth Taylor in this inspired take on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. But Burton was never allowed to be this funny, with Rogen delivering so many side-splitting one-liners that comment on the avalanche of bad circumstances throughout the night.

Considering the minuscule cast and setting, one could play armchair therapist and analyze this as a sort of tactical retreat for Wilde as a filmmaker after her sophomore effort, Don't Worry Darling, where the tabloid antics garnered infinitely more attention than the middling film did by itself. Thankfully, this is just a step in a different direction rather than going backwards. Her skills both in front and behind the camera are still solidly illustrated. Her character twists herself into mental pretzels the whole night, all of it captured on 35mm, reminiscent of a home movie.

Cruz and Norton get to have a ball of a time watching as their hosts drag themselves into hell. Digging through their stuff and waxing poetic about his career as a firefighter, Norton is fully loosened up, almost parodying his frequent high-strung roles. Cruz's alluring openness, as well as her occupation as a psychotherapist, is what drives the film's third-act pivot. An ulterior motive is revealed by the guests as to why they accepted the invitation, a revelation that provides a whole new level of context for the cover image of this review.

It's that reveal that opens the human elements within this tragicomedy of manners. In all of us is a desire to be desired, a yearning that proves our self-worth. Validation is a potent drug, one that can't be administered by yourself. Wilde doesn't handle these later dramatic scenes with as much skill as the earlier comedic ones, but the hard work she and the writers put into these characters still makes it land with a bit of a punch. In a summer blockbuster season ruled by giant tenpoles overfilled with noise and visual effects, this is a smart and funny party you'll want to attend.

A24 will release The Invite in select theaters on June 26th, followed by a nationwide expansion on July 10th.