The Invite Parent Guide

Associate music professor at a small conservatory wasn’t how Joe (Seth Rogen) saw himself spending his life, but since his band flopped, he’s got nowhere else to be. Coming home from work one day, Joe finds that his wife, Angela (Olivia Wilde) has invited the upstairs neighbors over for dinner. This leads to another of the many, frequent arguments the couple has been having of late, partially ending only with the arrival of Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pína (Penélope Cruz). As the night progresses, tensions continue to escalate between both couples, and a supposedly casual dinner party with the neighbours rapidly becomes something altogether different.

I’ll let you know off the hop that The Invite is a film exclusively for adult audiences. It earns its R-rating with no fewer than 111 f-bombs, substance use, and frequent and fairly explicit conversations about sex parties, swinging, and orgies. So, you know, adult audiences. 

The better news is that it is remarkably funny. There’s a lot of fast-paced crosstalk between characters, and almost all of it is snappy and sardonic. I haven’t heard this much laughter in a theater in a really long time – yes, some of it mine. It is, well, adult, but it’s also punchy, nasty, and has a great sense of timing. 

The Invite isn’t a one-trick pony either. Despite the mounting resentment and tension in the apartment being sufficient to power a medium-sized industrial nation, the characters are all given sincere, emotionally vulnerable moments, and each member of the cast makes the most of it. I was particularly surprised by Seth Rogen, who I mostly know from his goofy stoner comedies (and yes, he spends half of this movie smoking weed, too), but who actually carries a lot of dramatic weight in this movie and does so gracefully. 

So, for all the content concerns (and there are plenty), I had a lot more fun with this movie than I expected. From the snippy, bitter arguments to the bizarre drama, this movie had me and a half-full theater laughing more often than not – and during the “not” sections, the show gives you compelling dramatic performances. That’s more than you get from most other releases – more profanity, more sexual language, and more actual entertainment. It’s up to you whether that last one is worth the first two.