The Invite Is on HBO Max Now, and Olivia Wilde's Dinner Party Comedy Deserved a Bigger Crowd

Photo: PattayaPatrol, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Invite slipped onto HBO Max on October 23 and I think a lot of people are about to discover it for the first time, which is a shame and also fine. Olivia Wilde directs and stars opposite Seth Rogen as a married couple who invite their upstairs neighbours, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton, down for dinner, and the evening goes exactly as badly as you would hope. It is a remake of a Spanish film from a few years ago and it keeps the single-apartment, single-night structure.

It premiered at Sundance in January, went wide in July, and did around $56 million worldwide on a budget of about $12 to $15 million, which is a quiet hit for an adult comedy in 2026. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 96 percent. The reviews mostly said the same thing: the first half tries too hard, the second half lands, and Rogen and Cruz are the pairing nobody expected to work and the one that does. Matt Zoller Seitz called the first half over-directed and I know what he means, but it settles.

Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What I liked is how uncomfortable it is willing to be. There is a stretch in the middle where the film stops being funny for about ten minutes and lets the two marriages actually fall apart in front of each other, and Wilde holds the camera on it. After Don't Worry Darling it is a relief to see her make something small and sharp and trust the actors.

Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It is ninety minutes, it is on a service you probably already have, and it is the best Friday night film I can recommend this week that does not involve a monster. Have you seen it, and whose side were you on by the end of the dinner?