Tag Archives: Olivia Wilde

THE INVITE (Olivia Wilde, 2026).

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THE INVITE (Olivia Wilde, 2026).

Joe (Seth Rogan) is a music teacher who’s long given up on his dream of a music career and is embarrassed to be living in his late parents’ apartment. Angela (Olivia Wilde) suffers from anxiety and is sublimating all her frustrations into home decoration. She’s invited the couple upstairs (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) over for dinner, a shock to Joe as the sound of their orgasms keep are preventing him from sleeping. It turns out the couple upstairs are swingers. Will the dinner turn into an orgy? Will Joe and Angela find a way forward in their marriage? A very funny comedy of manners, well-directed by Olivia Wilde. I laughed out loud throughout and kept marvelling at Penélope Cruz who I find one of those stars, like Audrey Hepburn, who makes everything she does interesting, always compelling and rewarding to look at: a star, and luminous with it; on film, a creature of light. Seth Rogan is …well far from that.. but he’s got a warmth and a way of saying a line that makes his character emotionally accessible, legible and funny simultaneously. A different, though no lesser, type of gift, marvellously on display in this very funny film.

Based on a Spanish film, adapted from a play by Cesc Gay, THE PEOPLE UPSTAIRS.

Rashida Jones and Will McCormack are credited with the screenplay.

José Arroyo

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 372 – Don’t Worry Darling

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Listen on the players above, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde’s second feature as director, after Booksmart, which we loved, is an irredeemable mess of a psychological thriller. We pick through its carcass in an attempt to figure out which bit of it we liked the least.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 151 – Booksmart

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Ridiculously, relentlessly, laugh-out-loud funny, we had a brilliant time in Booksmart. It’s a last-day-before-graduation high school comedy about two girls determined to finally have some fun having been bookworms their entire lives. José loves the central relationship between the straight and lesbian best friends, Mike loves the empathy and openness the film shows towards every one of its characters, deliberately constructing them at first as high school archetypes so that it can go on to reveal their hidden depths.

Booksmart is a simply brilliant comedy with tons of heart and you will have a fantastic time. Don’t miss it.

The podcast can be listened to in the players above or on iTunes.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.