‘The Invite’ Trailer: Seth Rogen And Olivia Wilde Get Propositioned By Penélope Cruz And Edward Norton In A24 Comedy
The upcoming A24 comedyThe Invite takes viewers to an intimate dinner party, but a home-cooked meal isn’t the main course.
Directed by and starring former Maxim cover star Olivia Wilde alongside Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton, this remake of the Spanish film The People Upstairs follows a simple premise as described by the official synopsis published by Deadline: “Joe and Angela (Wilde and Rogen) are on thin ice, and tonight might be when it all falls apart. Unfortunately, their upstairs neighbors (Norton and Cruz) are about to arrive for dinner, and everything that can go wrong goes worse.” Among the developments is a proposition from Norton and Cruz’s “sexologists,” who practice a lifestyle of radical sexual openness.
The Invite premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival to wide acclaim from critics, earning it an early 91 percent aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes. In a sensational review proclaiming it a frontrunner for “the funniest movie of the year,” the New York Post wrote, “Punchlines, witty asides and physical bits are delivered and choreographed with such easy dexterity, The Invite almost doesn’t feel like a 2026 comedy, a designation that usually means ‘dumb as rocks’ or ‘drama with a clown nose.’ The style here is retro, yet the sheer abundance of truly great jokes keeps it fresh and modern.
Rolling Stone singled out Wilde, who also stars in I Want Your Sex, another Sundance standout directed by Gregg Araki. “The surprise here is Wilde, who not only knows how to keep viewers on the back foot as a filmmaker but taps into a neurotic register and off-kilter comic timing for her high-strung hostess that fit her like a rubber glove.”
A negative review from Vulture, however, describes a more shallow audience experience. “The Invite is primarily a comedy, and it does have some solid laughs, though the character interactions can also feel so manufactured that our bullshit detectors start going off fairly early.”
The Invite gets a limited theatrical release on June 26. Check out the trailer below: