The Invite – Review
‘The Invite’ Marks Olivia Wilde’s Unofficial Resentment Trilogy
Spoiler Warning for: Booksmart (2019), Don’t Worry Darling (2022), and The Invite (2026).
On January 24th 2026, at the Sundance Film Festival, Olivia Wilde premiered her third feature film, The Invite, to great critical acclaim. After the disappointing reception to her sophomore piece, Don’t Worry Darling, contrasted with her critically acclaimed debut, Booksmart, Wilde had to prove that she was not a one-trick pony and could once again deliver great art. The Invite proves that the real blip (if you could even call it that) in her filmography was Don’t Worry Darling, as this film proves Wilde as one of the great directors working today, and rounds off what I have coined her unofficial ‘trilogy of resentment’.
The Invite – Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz & Edward Norton
Starring Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton, and Wilde herself, the film depicts a dinner party gone wrong, hosted by the married couple Joe and Angela (Rogen and Wilde), as we watch their marriage crumble in real time. At the core of Wilde’s filmography so far is her fascination with resentment within different kinds of relationships. The Invite is not divorced from this, and is perhaps her most in tune with these ideas. It’s evident from the film’s opening sequence, brilliantly put together by Wilde, that Joe and Angela have grown to resent one another.
The film opens with Angela frantically trying to organise a dinner party, amongst a million other things, reminding Joe to take his shoes off as he walks through the door. Joe sighs, lies on his back and complains as Angela expresses frustration. To anybody who has ever experienced the end of a long-term relationship with somebody whom you know better than anyone, you understand these nuances all too well. Wilde wonderfully communicates this throughout her film, which was heavily inspired by her very public split from Jason Sudeikis.
“It’s no surprise to me that I ended up making a movie about relationships and the complexity of determining whether a relationship is over, because it is not an overnight process. It’s very difficult.” – Olivia Wilde when asked about her process when making The Invite.
They split in November 2020, amidst production on Wilde’s sophomore feature, Don’t Worry Darling. Separated from its mediocre critical and audience reception, Don’t Worry Darling suffered a rocky and heavily publicised production hell, followed by one of the most infamous press tours of the decade, which had the world wondering… “did Harry Styles really spit on Chris Pine in Venice?” Unfortunately, Wilde took most of the blow from this press tour for her high-concept, low-reward psychological thriller. Due to the controversy generated from her sophomore feature, Wilde took a step back from public life and made The Invite, a polar opposite to its predecessor, yet continuing and elevating her exploration of resentment.
Unlike her other work, with large ensembles and many sets, The Invite remains contained to one location with only four characters, and it might be her best yet. Each character is played as a caricature of their archetype. It feels in tune with the renaissance of media like Sex and the City and Girls, where we’re all online asking ourselves if we’re a ‘Carrie’ or a ‘Samantha’, a “Hannah’ or a ‘Marnie’? Maybe we’ll begin asking ourselves if we’re a ‘Joe’ or an ‘Angela’, or even a ‘Piña’ (Penélope Cruz) or a ‘Hawk’ (Edward Norton)?
Trivial online discourse aside, this is one of the many things that makes The Invite so special. Wilde’s ability to create four distinct characters that never stray too far away from themselves, remaining contained not just in this location but in their being, is something to be celebrated. This is also a credit to the performers. This is perhaps Rogen at his best; his ability to play an insecure, troubled individual who cannot separate himself from failure with a lighthearted playfulness allows for those final scenes to remain grounded in their depictions, making the end of Joe and Angela’s relationship feel relatable.
The Invite – Seth Rogen and Oliva Wilde
There’s a brilliant moment during the film’s ‘therapy session’ (for lack of a better phrase), where Angela tells the story of how she met Joe. She recites that she was on a terrible date, and Joe was playing the bar. When Angela left, she turned around and ran 11 blocks to catch Joe. Joe’s eyes light up as Angela recites this story, telling us that he ‘didn’t know she’d run 11 blocks’ and joking that he thought she was ‘abnormally sweaty’. This moment is so beautifully crafted because it communicates that whilst there was love and excitement at the beginning of this relationship, it is long gone as Joe and Angela have grown into different people.
In the day and age of what feels like the celebration of obsessions over intense relationships, and the newly founded “situationship”, particularly in the Gen Z media space, it’s refreshing to see the depiction of an overstayed relationship ending in such a human way. Whilst I don’t think all media has to stop portraying toxic relationships immediately (because that would be incredibly silly), I do think that these depictions can become oversaturated, and that we need more media depicting somewhat amicable breakups (and more stable relationships in general). Until you see these depictions and feel refreshed by them, you really don’t realise how deprived we’ve become.
Where The Invite succeeds is when Wilde knows when to stop. For example, the film is genuinely hilarious because Wilde understands that humour can outstay its welcome, allowing for a subtle but effective tonal shift in the film’s third act. Similarly, Wilde’s understanding of a long-term relationship falling apart and knowing its eventual end is what makes the film’s finale so quietly devastating. Although we’ve witnessed Joe and Angela’s passive-aggressiveness towards one another throughout the runtime, that lingering love for one another still peeps through the cracks. Their lack of communication has manifested into resentment caused by their lack of awareness of how to love each other.
Wilde’s understanding that the end of a relationship is rarely caused by a singular explosive event is what separates The Invite from the typical relationship drama seen throughout contemporary media. Joe and Angela’s quiet reconciliation at the end of the film depicts the mundanity of washing dishes, cleaning up and discussing sleeping arrangements, contrasting the chaotic tonality carried throughout the first acts of the film. The ordinariness of these acts is what makes this ending so painful, as Wilde reminds the audience that the end of a relationship is rarely dramatic and explosive, but quietly heartbreaking.
The Invite – Penélope Cruz and Olivia Wilde
Depicting resentment in a restrained manner is where Wilde shines in her explorations, and is what I believe separates both Booksmart and The Invite from Don’t Worry Darling within her trilogy of resentment. In Booksmart, best friends Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) begin to resent one another as they have prioritised academic success at the expense of the “high school experience”. Although Booksmart depicts an explosive argument between the two at a house party, as Amy reveals she will be taking a year out of academics, the film ends with the quiet acceptance that adolescence causes people to grow apart, as Molly and Amy reconcile.
Don’t Worry Darling depicts a woman’s resentment towards her ‘husband’, causing the reveal that this idealistic fantasy world they live in isn’t real, and he has her there against her will. Where I believe Don’t Worry Darling’s main failure lies is within Alice’s (Florence Pugh) lack of opportunity to quietly reconcile with herself after having her autonomy stripped. Amongst many other flaws, and despite interesting ideas, the film falters because it fails to ground itself; However, the common denominator between all three of Wilde’s films is her interrogation of relationships built on expectation, and how this falls into resentment.
Each of these films builds on ideas from the last, with The Invite feeling like the conclusion to this trilogy. Booksmart is an introduction to resentment within adolescence, as it depicts friends forced to confront their conjuncting lives and internal conflicting ideas that they had predisposed for one another. Don’t Worry Darling explores resentment hidden underneath the public perception of a ‘perfect relationship’, where possession and ownership have been disguised as romance. Yet, what makes The Invite feel so mature in comparison is its stripped-back, mundane approach, asking “what remains when resentment has gone too far”? Ending with Joe and Angela’s respectful, quiet reconciliation that refuses to place blame on a singular party.
The Invite is Wilde’s best work to date, with an Oscar-worthy screenplay from Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, and sharp, assured direction from Wilde herself, allowing for a hilarious yet grounded experience, with a quiet, melancholic ending.
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