Film Review – The Invite

Olivia Wilde ran into plenty of troubles with her last directorial outing, 2022’s “Don’t Worry Darling.” She battled horrible press, production troubles, and underwhelming box office on a picture that was intended to launch her career as a major helming force. Wilde is back with “The Invite,” and one can sense an effort to keep things minimal this time around, allowing her more control with less cast members to manage and a tighter space to work within. It’s a remake of the 2020 Spanish movie, “The People Upstairs,” and screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormack are challenged to Americanize the endeavor while preserving the material’s inherent points of pressure. “The Invite” puts actors Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, Penelope Cruz, and Wilde in an apartment for an evening of conversation and confrontation, and the feature maintains a slight level of intensity without ever spilling over into bigger comedy and stronger emotionality. Still, it’s nice to see Wilde back on her feet again with the smaller ways of her latest offering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com