The Invite
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Marriage is complicated. It's messy, it's difficult, and sometimes it all blows up just because you want to have a nice dinner party with the neighbors.
That's the premise of The Invite, a very good new comedy directed by Olivia Wilde. Wilde also stars alongside Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton. And this is a heck of a dinner party full of frank talk about sex and its complications. I'm Ayesha Harris.
And I'm Linda Holmes. And joining us today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is Soraya Nadia McDonald. She's a cultural critic and journalist. Hello, Soraya, and welcome back.
Hello, glad to be here as always.
I know, we're so happy to see you. The invite begins with Joe and Angela, a married couple played by Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde. They have a daughter, but she's at a sleepover, so Angela invites the neighbors, Pina and Hawk, over for dinner. They're played by Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton.
We were at the door before we rang and we could hear you were fighting.
Oh, we were talking, we were, um...
We were fighting.
We were fighting, yeah.
What is The Invite and who is in its cast?
A bit of a contentious environment in here, so I understand if that's repellent to you. No hard feelings, you know what I mean?
Angela wants to get to know them because she just thinks they're interesting. Joe wants to tell them to stop having such loud and enthusiastic sex in the middle of the night. Hawk and Pina turn out to be absolute chaos agents for Joe and Angela, whose marriage is struggling, even as Angela's renovating and decorating of their apartment fails. makes their physical surroundings more beautiful than ever. That sex life that Pina and Hawk are enjoying does eventually come up as the two couples navigate a long evening of conversation. Wilde directed the film, and the screenplay comes from Rashida Jones and Will McCormick, who adapted a 2020 Spanish film called Sentimental. The Invite is in theaters now.
All right, so Aisha, I'm going to start with you. What did you think of The Invite?
Well, my hot take is that the alternate title for this movie could have been Who's Afraid of the Invite, Baby? Because it's got sort of like plenty of people have already compared this to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Of course, the Mike Nichols film with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and their relationship is confronted by a much younger couple and all of that stuff. But then this also has this sort of kinetic connection. very stressful energy of Shiva Baby, the film starring Rachel Sennett from a few years ago that is set during a Shiva and is very intense. All that to say, I really like both of those movies and I like this movie a lot too. I think that all of these actors are kind of working in a very interesting mode.
It's a very claustrophobic film. It mostly, except for the very beginning of the film where we have a short montage over the credit sequence, it takes place in this San Francisco apartment in And it feels clustered and the energy is there. And it does a really good job of showing this progression of relationships and a relationship that we are being sort of dropped into and where it goes and all of the things that happen. And I think everyone here is great. And so if you like Out of those movies I've mentioned, I think you're probably going to appreciate this film. And it's stressful, but also I enjoyed it a lot. Yeah. Soraya, how about you? What'd you think?
I also enjoyed it for a few reasons. One, as Aisha says, because it just, you cannot help but be reminded of who's afraid of Virginia Woolf. Also, like, I'm really happy to see Edward Norton in a comic role just making a fool of himself.
Yeah.
And then the other thing I think that's really enjoyable about this is I fully admit that I like movies about people's messy relationships and marriages. Yes. And this one is particularly messy, but then it's quite thoughtful as well.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:25
2
What is The Invite and who is in its cast?
1:25–4:33
3
How does the dinner-party premise set up the movie's central conflicts?
4:33–10:40
4
Why do reviewers compare The Invite to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Shiva Baby?
10:40–13:21
5
How do the actors balance comedy and emotional depth in the film?
13:21–22:25