IFFBoston 2026 Closing Night Film

Joe and Angela are on thin ice, and tonight might be when it all falls apart. Unfortunately, their upstairs neighbors are about to arrive for dinner, and everything that can go wrong goes worse.

A fiercely energized chamber dramedy, THE INVITE revitalizes the classic, largely bygone cinema of marital strife. Olivia Wilde’s scenes from a marriage are suitably raw and revealing, but also compassionate, deeply human, and incredibly funny. From a screenplay by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, the film gleefully plunges two couples (Wilde and Seth Rogen; Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) into the crucible of a seemingly innocuous evening, delighting in its contortions as awkward small talk turns to the unearthing of long-tenured grievances, insecurities, codependencies, failed aspirations, and sexual FOMO. Constructing a vibrant aesthetic and brilliantly orchestrated interactions, Wilde finds a universe of space within one location, and her process—workshopping material with the cast, shooting chronologically (on 35mm!), and inviting them to explore as they worked—gives THE INVITE a remarkable authenticity.

— John Nein, Sundance Film Festival guide