The Invite movie poster
Poster © A24. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
GenreComedy & Drama
RatedR
Runtime1 hr 47 mins
ReleasedJune 26, 2026
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorOlivia Wilde
StarringSeth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz

The Invite (2026)

movie.guru URL: https://movie.guru/the-invite-movie-review
The Invite's Details
GenreComedy & Drama
RatedR
Released01/24/2026 (Sundance); 06/26/2026 (United States)
StreamingSee Where to Watch on this page.
Running Time1 hr 47 mins
Budget$15M (reported)
Box OfficeUpdated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below.
Based OnSentimental by Cesc Gay
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
The Invite's Interests
GeneralDinner parties, thin ceilings, jazz records, awkward small talk, brutal honesty.
MusicDevonté Hynes. Jazz chords for a guy who teaches them.
MoviesThe People Upstairs (2020). The Spanish original from Cesc Gay.
TelevisionCurb Your Enthusiasm. Joe would fit right in.
HeroesJoe. Brutally honest, somehow charming about it.
The Invite's Crew
DirectorOlivia Wilde
WritersWill McCormack, Rashida Jones
ProducersBen Browning, Megan Ellison, David Permut
CinematographyAdam Newport-Berra
MusicDevonté Hynes
Edited ByYorgos Mavropsaridis, Anthony Boys
ProductionFilmNation Entertainment, Permut Presentations, Annapurna Pictures
Distributed ByA24
The Invite's Trailer
Official Trailer • A24
How The Invite Performed
movie guru's TLDR

Grown-ups only on this one, so the plot summary stops at the front door. Joe, a jazz band teacher, and his wife Angela invite the upstairs neighbors to dinner, partly because Joe has had it with the noise through the ceiling. Angela forgot the wine. Joe can’t stop telling the truth. The guests love that, and they came with a plan of their own. It wobbles in the final act, where the big emotional turns arrive faster than the film earns them. It’s basically a stage play with nice lighting. But what a play. Seth Rogen is on top of his game as a grump who can’t fake a smile. Olivia Wilde directs and plays Angela as someone desperate to be liked. Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton are smooth, odd and very funny. It made $60.6 million worldwide on a reported $15M. An 8.4 because it’s sharp and painfully relatable about a marriage running on fumes. $5,663 says you hear the neighbors through the wall tonight and decide never to invite them over.

What works: Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton are all terrific, and the dinner-table sparring is funny and uncomfortably true.

What doesn’t: The final act rushes its emotional turns so they don’t feel fully earned, and the musical score pushes too hard.

Who it’s for: Adults who love talky, uncomfortable dinner-party comedies about marriage, strictly after the kids are in bed.

Spoilers

The night turns into an impromptu therapy session, with Pina, a therapist, getting Joe and Angela to admit how much they resent each other. They seem to agree to separate, then come back from the kitchen to find the neighbors have quietly gone, and Joe finally sits down at the piano he refused to play, with Angela joining him.

Guru’s Take
8.4/10
Great
The Invite's Blurbs
About me:

San Francisco. Joe (Seth Rogen) teaches jazz band at a conservatory and comes home to a surprise: his wife Angela (Olivia Wilde) has invited the upstairs neighbors, Pina (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), over for dinner. Joe and Angela already bicker about everything, and lately it's the noise that comes through the ceiling at night. Joe wants to confront the neighbors. Angela wants to impress them and orders him to stay calm. The guests ring the bell mid-argument. Wilde also directs, from a script by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones. One hundred seven minutes, one very long dinner party.

Who I'd like to meet:

Anyone with loud neighbors and strong opinions. Bring dessert, the hosts were not ready.

The Invite's Cast (in credits order)
Seth RogenJoe
Olivia WildeAngela
Penélope CruzPina
Edward NortonHawk
Full cast and crew on IMDb.
The Invite's Edit History
Every change to this page, newest first. Movie data updates are logged like any other edit.
  • (cur | prev) 14:30, 18 October 2026 DataBot +440 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $60.6M; Domestic box office $26.1M; Opening weekend $379K; Profit / loss (est.) +$7.8M; Rotten Tomatoes 96%; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 96% (292 reviews); Metacritic 82 / 100; PostTrak audience 89% positive; IMDb users 7.4 / 10 (85,913 votes); movie.guru score 8.8.
  • (cur | prev) 12:00, 18 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.