The Invite

Like that film, it is also about two adult couples negotiating anxieties surrounding sex with other people – and also like that film, it's really, consistently funny and stylishly directed, made with the kind of care and rigidity that comedies just aren't afforded now. The Invite marks a notably exciting new high for her.

The Invite is funny … and Rogen is on top of his game. It is intriguing, amusing and, finally, somehow bizarrely moving, with Rogen's levity keeping the outrageous plot points in check.

You're going to want to attend Olivia Wilde's crackling, crazy entertaining dinner party from hell. The director also stars in the film alongside Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, and Penelope Cruz in great comedy with plenty to say.

Wilde and Rogen nail the comedic timing and lived-in tension of their miserable married couple who still holds somewhat of a flame that just needs a little fuel and a lot of communication. Overall, the film explores dynamics of sex and relationships with raw and endearing honesty, and Wilde's newest work more than makes up for any gripes with her last directorial outing, Don't Worry Darling.

When it's cooking, which is most of the run time, this is a smart, sophisticated and incisively acted adult entertainment that savages the crumbling institution of marriage, dangles the promise of sexual rescue and then brings the walls crashing down in a bitter reckoning that seems irreversible — until a window of hope and healing gets cracked open. That closing note is so lovely, and its visual handling so graceful, that it retroactively smooths the bumps.