Sundance 2026: Olivia Wilde’s New Film ‘The Invite’ is Honest & Funny

by Alex Billington
January 25, 2026

This is what happens when you invite your neighbors over and they reveal their secrets. Then you have to figure out how to respond and how it makes you feel. You can either laugh, or freak out, or get angry, or just shrug it off (good luck with that). But no matter what, you’ll never forget this encounter. That’s pretty much what happens in this fun new sex comedy film called The Invite – directed by actress Olivia Wilde as her third feature film she’s made so far. This new movie is a US remake of the Spanish film titled The People Upstairs (or Sentimental) written and directed by Cesc Gay. The short synopsis for that one sums up both films perfectly: two couples explore the complexities of modern day relationships. Wilde’s film is set in San Francisco and stars Seth Rogen & Olivia Wilde as a couple who experience one heck of an eye-opening evening when their upstairs neighbors come down for the evening and they end up chatting about life and romance and relationships and sex. It’s smart and funny and honest – an entertaining and worthwhile film.

Olivia Wilde’s The Invite is a chamber piece drama with some full-on, laugh-out-loud humor and some deep cut truths about sex and how it disrupts & defines relationships. Set entirely in one apartment – a sprawling flat they admit they can’t afford and only have because it was passed down by family. The screenplay is by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, inspired by the Spanish film The People Upstairs, reinterpreting it for American audiences. Wilde directs and also co-stars in the film. Rogen & Wilde play Joe & Angela who live in this quaint home. Tonight their mysterious upstairs neighbors are coming down for dinner. What follows is an evening of unexpected twists and turns, revealing deeply repressed emotions and unexplored sexuality. The Invite co-stars Penélope Cruz & Edward Norton as the other couple. Surprise, surprise, everyone in this gives top notch performances, which is usually what happens when an actor directs a film because they really understand how to get these intimate, natural, yet emotional performances out of everyone. Wilde is at her best and Rogen is hilarious, providing laugh after laugh even within his painfully awkward situations.

I appreciate how many brutally honest and raw films about relationships are being made these days. They’re most often about how sometimes we really need to talk through things and work through things rather than just throw it all out and never address anything. The Invite is an amusing & easily watchable film that starts out funny, turns kinky, gets sad, but always stays honest & endearing. I was quite moved by it, which is not what I was expecting going in. Yes, okay sure, the sex conversations are pretty surface-level and a tad cliche. However, I think the whole point is that having these conversations most people want to avoid is actually good. Being put into these uncomfortable situations allows them to finally open up and admit truths that they’re keeping hidden deep down within. And if this film is funny enough, smart enough, and open-minded enough to get viewers to think about their own lives, their own feelings, and their own relationships, then it has achieved its ultimate goal and that’s quite powerful. And I believe it is all of that. Even if it gets a bit dour towards the end, getting there is a worthwhile journey filled with heart laughs. Most of all it’s just good fun to see these four talented actors playing off of each other and causing a commotion for our enjoyment.

Alex’s Sundance 2026 Rating: 8 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

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