Jaw-dropping ‘The Invite’ with Olivia Wilde and Seth Rogen is already the funniest movie of the year

PARK CITY, Utah — If a better comedy than “The Invite” hits theaters this year, audiences will be damn lucky to RSVP. 

Director Olivia Wilde’s outstanding movie, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival Saturday to a rare mountain standing ovation, should go down as one of the best of 2026. Of any genre. You’ll howl.

What a stunning return to form this is for Wilde after the letdown that was “Don’t Worry Darling.” 

I, for one, am no longer worrying, darlings, because now she’s firmly back in prime “Booksmart” territory with a sophisticated, snappy, seductive and stupendously funny film about a long-married couple who are in way over their heads.   

They’re Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde doing double-duty), husband-and-wife apartment dwellers for whom marriage has become a sleepy series of silent nights and petty grievances.

Their passive-aggressive putdowns are flung so quickly and casually, you walk out convinced Wilde and Rogen have been secretly married for 20 years.

One evening, when their 12-year-old daughter is at a friend’s house, Angela invites their bohemian upstairs neighbors Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penelope Cruz) over for a classy wine-and-charcuterie party. 

High-strung Angela desperately aspires to be considered cultured. And as she strenuously tries to prove herself, Wilde gives one of her finest performances. Practically rhythmic gymnastics.

She mentally grasps for the thesaurus when she attempts to describe her super basic home renovation. And her face twists in operatic agony over snafus with her cheese souffle and empty wine cabinet. A bored stay-at-home mom, Angela is itching to host the cosmopolitan couple.

But Joe, a music teacher who hates his job, loathes the free-spirited pair because they have foghorn-loud sex into the early morning, and insists the gettogether be called off. Too late. The pair knock, knock, knock mid-fight.

“We love a contentious environment,” says zen Hawk.

“You’ve hit the jackpot then,” deadpans Joe. 

They sure have.

The phenomenal script is a bullet train of mean slights, awkward miscommunications, deception and “oh no!” bombshells. And Wilde, her actors — especially masterful Rogen — and editor are silliness savants. 

Punchlines, witty asides and physical bits are delivered and choreographed with such easy dexterity, “The Invite” almost doesn’t feel like a 2026 comedy, a designation that usually means “dumb as rocks” or  “drama with a clown nose.” 

The style here is retro, yet the sheer abundance of truly great jokes keeps it fresh and modern.  

The erratic soiree moves from the kitchen to the couch. The vino and tequila flow, the pot gets smoked and the Xanax gets popped.

And while that booze-to-blows set-up rings of the old formula from “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and the later play-turned-Roman-Polanski movie “God of Carnage,” its avalanche of zingers — none of which fall flat — and frenetic pace set “The Invite” apart.

Joe and Angela are also not scotch-swilling academics like George and Martha or hapless suburbanites doing sophomoric-if-fun gags, like Rogen and Rose Byrne in “Neighbors.” You’ll recognize this spark-snuffed duo to the point of cringing.

I was reminded of when I visit old pals who have kids, and they regale me with all the stuff they can’t do anymore.

And, while Hawk and Pina — whose jobs are too amusing to drop here — are their life-loving opposites, Norton and Cruz don’t ham it up. They aren’t the Fockers; they’re that inhibitionless friend who says, “Come with me to Mykonos!” a day before the flight.

The two zesty actors are hilarious. However, in a reversal, it’s the “straight” duo who provide most of the laughs — not the wacky one.

If you sense where the movie is headed, you’re right — and also wrong. 

“The Invite” is lusty for sure, but it has a serious side, which barges in during the final half hour when questions about Joe and Angela’s relationship tumble out into the open.

Issues millions of people face everyday are addressed cleverly and poignantly, and never without a hint of humor. Wilde isn’t really interested in sentimentality, either, and her movie hits harder for it.

“The Invite” might be the worst party of the year, but beg, borrow and steal for an invite.