Olivia Wilde’s ‘The Invite’ Debuts to Strong Critical Response

Olivia Wilde’s third feature, The Invite, premiered at Sundance and is set for a limited U.S. release on July 24, 2026. The film, starring Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, follows a strained San‑Francisco marriage that invites their noisy upstairs neighbors for a dinner party, exposing tensions around sex, communication and mid‑life dissatisfaction.

Written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, the screenplay adapts Cesc Gay’s 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs (Sentimental). Critics note the sharp, rapid‑fire dialogue, the intimate single‑apartment setting, and Wilde’s direction that balances humor with emotional weight. The supporting performances, especially Cruz’s therapist‑sexologist Pína and Norton’s firefighter Hawk, have been highlighted, as has Dev Hynes’s anxious score. Reviewers describe the movie as a modern “drawing‑room comedy of manners” that explores marriage discontent with both wit and poignancy.