Guess who’s fucking up dinner? ‘The Invite’ takes the dinner-party-from-hell film to next level sh!tstorm

Dinner-party-from-hell films aren’t new, but The Invite goes hard on the chaos factor, and that’s not a bad thing in the genre of comedy.

What begins as a slick, slightly smug evening between a “perfect” couple and their neighbour quickly spirals into something far messier: a slow, wine-soaked unravelling of ego, resentment and long-buried truths. Basically all those thoughts that hide behind a neighbour’s smile.

A supposedly happy, married couple (Olivia Wilde and Seth Rogan) invites their noisy neighbours from the apartment above for drinks, and to show off their newly renovated apartment. What could possible go wrong? A lot.

Hawke, an ex-fireman (played by Edward Norton) and Pina, a sexologist (Penelope Cruz) are the boisterous neighbours – a couple so handsome in their pairing, they’ve probably gotten away with worse anywhere they’ve lived. But here, truth is about to be told. It doesn’t take long after much wine, cheese and weed to see the event turn into a shitstorm.

Cruz plays the perfect wife with all the bored nuances of a mouse on crack. Every tick and trait of a person watching their ambition and life whiz by without actually getting in the driver’s seat. Renovations, you can tell, were not the answer. 

Her hubbie, Joe (Seth Rogan), is so comfortable in his character of a dude whose early days in a rock band didn’t quite eventuate into anything, except perhaps inspiring a fraction of the classes he gives as a grumpy college music teacher.

This couple’s chemistry is less sparks of romance, and more stuck in emotional stand-off. And the film thrives in this discomfort. Conversations turn sharp, silences stretch, and every laugh lands with a wince. It’s funny, yes, but it’s the kind of humour that cuts close to home, holding up a mirror to modern relationships and the myths we build around them.

By the time the night implodes, The Invite asks a lingering question: are we brave enough to change, or just good at pretending we will?

Elle Getty & Antonino Tati

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