Episode 19: 'The Invite' and Claustrophobic Couples

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On today's episode, we are reviewing the newest adult drama-comedy from director Olivia Wilde and A24, The Invite. Starring Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Watch More Movies. I'm your host, Ricky, and today we are talking about the newest A24 release, The Invite. To coincide with The Invite, I wanted to talk about other relationship films similar to the drama episode, but with less toxicity. These recommendations definitely have some of that, but also can be quieter and funnier and more contained in the setting in which they take place, the amount of characters there are, and ideas that are coming to a head in these relationships that build up specifically in these stories. Today we are going to start with the invite, talk about the original film it's based on, the people upstairs, and five more recommendations. The Invite, directed by Olivia Wilde, stars Seth Rogan, Olivia Wilde herself, Edward Norton, and Penelope Cruz. It follows couple Joe and Angela, played by Rogan and Wilde, one evening after Angela has invited their outgoing and friendly neighbors Hawk and Pina, Norton and Cruz, over for dinner and drinks. It might be already apparent, and especially if you follow my letterbox, you can see it, but I loved the invite. Even more so, it felt so electric seeing it in a pack theater with people who all had no idea what to expect. Olivia Wilde delivers her best film to date. While I loved her debut, Book Smart, I did not care for her follow-up, Don't Worry Darling. Despite it having interesting ideas and gorgeous photography, it was not for me and did not work. Here, she really knows what she wants out of this script and her actors, including herself, that each cut and blocking of scenes come with a clear vision of what Joe and Angela have to say about each other and how that reflects the relationship between Hawk and Pinha. Rogan is absolutely terrific here as this miserable character and guy and husband who just cannot seem to move on with his missteps or professional failures and wants to wallow in his misery. While Angela is someone who wants to show she has more to offer, even if not from Joe, but with these neighbors. She has an artistic and tasteful eye, but she can feel good about how she looks and hopes that she can be seen for that, not just what she has to present herself as every day. Hawk and Pina also have a rich backstory that delivers a kind of area of spoiler territory, so I don't want to get into it, but I will say the dynamic between Norton and Cruz is one of the best I've seen on screen this year. Everyone here is terrific with each other, but Hawking Pina especially, their chemistry is electric and just so in sync with each other. Norton especially has some of the best one-liners in the entire film that got me laughing out loud. Right now, he might be my favorite supporting actor performance of the year, and I hope this film sticks around for awards season because he should absolutely be in the conversation along with picture or screenplay cruise as well for best supporting actress. I don't want to touch on the catalyst and main thing that this becomes a part of the story because I watched it with the full audience and it seemed like everyone did not know what that main thing was going to be about. But when it comes to adult relationship dramas or comedies, especially, the fear I always have is whenever they do this, they make the entire focus of the story about sex and lust. And while some of those themes are touched on at the and at the center, that ultimately is not what Wilde as a director wants to address with this central relationship of Joanne and Angela. She wants to show that sometimes one partner's misery or self-induced depression can bring the confidence and feeling of the other one down, causing the entire relationship to be on the brink of collapse or shattering. This really feels like a 70s adult drama comedy that doesn't get the attention today or even made today when they are made. It really is encouraging to see this do so well in limited release, and I hope you all check it out as it's out now in wide release. See it with the crowd, don't wait for streaming. It is definitely best when you see it with the 2020s, The People Upstairs is the original film that the invite is based on. Pretty exact same premise, so no need to re-itigate the details of the story. What I found slightly frustrating about this one, as its own film and not in comparison, is that it does not have the humorous intent and dramatic intensity, but can't quite find the perfect balance of the two together. Each of them individually are good, but just not in a good blend. The performances are terrific all around, but especially from the two leads playing Laura and Julio, they find the striking balance between disdain for each other and deep down love at the same time. As Salva and Anna enter their lives, they unravel those feelings so well for each other. And like I said, while the tone does try to be funnier, it felt colder than I wanted it to be. It may be the intention and quite not hitting like I thought it might. Nonetheless, the dramatic flair and comedic timing that does work come from Salva and Anna, who bring life into the film and really energize the scenes when it's the four of them. While it is in some instances eerily similar to the new invite, it does stand on its own, being the original, of course, and its own angle to tackle and maybe less serious tones. The second film to recommend is 2015's The Overnight. The Overnight follows a family recently moved to Los Angeles when the son of the couple befriends another child whose parents are welcoming and very eccentric. They attend the new friend's house for dinner and a night to make new friends in this place they moved to. Very similar in ways that play out to the next film, Bob and Carol, but a lot more subdued in its philosophy. I was surprised to learn this was directed by Patrick Bryce, who directed the two creep films with Mark Duplas. What I think Bryce wants to do here is take these characters out of their comfort zones. Even the eccentric couple who are seemingly more confident than Alex and Emily, our lead characters, are not so sure of what they want in their own marriages themselves. What does it mean for them to be honest and confident with yourself no matter who's around or what your partner thinks and what that brings out of you? Desires you never knew you had, or things about yourself you knew you never knew you loved before. The humor is not a joke, a second, but something in this humor feels profound for these characters and strips their shields down with everyone's guards being completely just ripped to shreds. I really like this, even if it is a bit of a retread of the next film, without some of the deeper cut interrogations of these ideas, but I do recommend the overnight. Number three is 1969's Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. This film begins with us following Bob and Carol, a married couple who are documentary filmmakers who want to document and observe this sort of couple's therapy getaway where relationships go to mend and explore this sort of new way of couple's therapy. Upon returning, Bob and Carol go to dinner with their friends Ted and Alice. They share their experience and their newfound openness and honesty with each other and their friends. Ted and Alice are a little more stuck up and dismissive personality types. What follows is a story about relationships and what we keep to ourselves and how loving someone is more than good memories and camaraderie, but brutal honesty, no matter what you do, can be the key to many in a healthy marriage, all marriages, to be clear, and what that does to the marriage. That while we do things that are abhorrent and even in some cases are not having traditional feelings, that if you love someone, you just want honesty from them. And in this case of the film, I mean real, raw, brutal honesty. Of course, the things that transpire here are not something that even most people want, but this is applicable to people that do and feel like they can't express it out of losing their partner. As the story progresses, you get two different POVs from Ted and Alice as they see and judge or don't judge how Bob and Carol's newfound honesty and what it means for their marriage or relationships in general. It raises a lot of interesting questions and discussion points about love, marriage, more specifically, and what different people hope to get out of marriage or what they think it is. It's a really interesting discussion point, and if you get a chance to check it out, I do recommend it. The direction, the screenplay, the performances are all just top-notch fantastic. Next up is 2014's The One I Love. It stars Elizabeth Moss and Mark Duplas as a married couple who are in the middle of marriage counseling when the therapist recommends a weekend getaway in a countryside cottage that he sent previous patients to stay at to help their respective marriages with what he claims is a hundred percent success rate. But when they arrive, they notice something strange going on when they encounter two people who are also staying there. To start, Duplass and Moss are absolutely terrific here. Moss is especially in a role that can become one-dimensional or redundant with the wrong actress, but she just absolutely nails it here, needing to express so much beneath the surface, with rarely ever actually saying explicitly outlong monologues about how she's feeling or what her intentions are. The idea that you love your partner despite all their flaws, or are their flaws too much to be able to look past? Does the ideal version of them exist in your mind to hold on to and stay in love with, or is it something you need to move on from if you can't make it work? There are a lot of relationship dynamics at play that are needy and gritty once these conversations do take place, but it is a great discussion topic once you do get into it. There is an aspect of the plot that I don't want to spoil if you don't know what it's about or haven't seen it. It doesn't spoil the entire story or resolution, but was something unique that if you don't know what the film is about, past it. It is surprising to see unfold, and I really hope you check it out. Don't read anything else into it or any sort of spoilers about it. It is worth going into completely blind. Next is 1994's What Happened Was. What happened was follows two coworkers, Michael and Jackie, on a first date at Jackie's apartment. The script here is just so genius. It takes its time with these two characters and never feels a need to create an artificial conflict. Jackie and Michael are both characters with a tragic past. Michael's is more self-inducing, while Jackie's is more circumstantial. They both have this interest in each other that is reflected in who these people are and how they see the world and how they see themselves. Michael is writing a book about the corporate world that reflects their workplace, while Jackie sees herself as someone who has written but suppresses that knowledge being known to people for various reasons. The reasonings sort of get revealed later on, but not in a way you might expect. They are both looking for love or just companionship in each other, despite how awkward the dinner is, and what I think is so genius about this script is it never reveals too much about the why, but it's more interpreted. There are some monologues, especially from Michael near the end, that are more straightforward, but I could see that being interpreted in several different ways and the purpose of it. Rest in peace, Tom Noonan, because this is one of his few things that he directed and just crafted a masterpiece. It is a slow burn character piece, but only 90-ish minutes and is more thematic than it is dramatic. So it's hard to talk specifics because I do want to highly recommend it, and I hope you do check it out. If you need somewhere to stream it, I believe it is free on YouTube. Someone put it up and has not been taken down, but definitely check out what happened was from 1994. The last film I'm gonna recommend is 1966's Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? This is about an older couple, George and Martha, who come back to their home one night after a cocktail party at the home of her father, the university president. Martha informs George that she has invited a younger couple for a nightcap after the party, and thus begins a night of emotional war between the two and then the four of them. While it is staged and sort of heightened for theatrical purposes, the dialogue and script are so sharp and knife slicing here that for my Gen Z listeners, if you thought the argument scene in marriage story was brutal and taxing, try that for nearly two hours, and it's that times ten. But never does it feel like it takes their arguments and has them argue for the sake of theatricality or for no reason. Everything that George and Martha argue and fight about are things that are either regular arguments for them or things that have been building up for them and feelings and emotions that they never address with each other or want to just get off them. They are the worst impulses and names and insults you could think of that they just burst out of each other while having some truth to how they feel and may not be totally impulsive. The reflection of them with this younger couple, Nick and Honey, are fascinating. You get this older couple who above the surface are just unloading all their insecurities and blames and faults with the other person onto each other, imposing them on this younger couple, but not in any malicious or callous way. Under the surface, you can see that they don't want them to end up in a marriage like theirs, when you get this huge night of lashing out and years of miserable life when you can be honest with each other up front and avoid the heartache during that time. And the secrets or quiet feelings that Nick and Honey start to reveal also sort of unveil what a marriage with honesty between George and Martha could have been from the beginning. Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf is really, really great, and it plays so well, even when it feels like a stage play for the best reasons. Really brutal things and uncomfortable moments just at every scene, and I highly, highly recommend if that is your type of thing that you can keep up with. Thank you for tuning in today to another episode. Next week I will be doing a mid-year recap of some recommendations of films that you may have missed from the first half of the year. If you haven't, please subscribe, like, and comment. It helps us show out a lot. We are on YouTube, Apple, Spotify for social media, Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky. Please respond with any other recommendations you might have. I would love to open the dialogue. If you've checked out these movies based on my recommendation, let me know what you thought. But until next time, watch more movies.