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‘The Invite’ Review: Olivia Wilde’s Crackling Dinner Party from Hell

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published on January 25, 2026 at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. A24 will release the film in theaters on Friday, June 26.

It opens with a classic epigraph from Oscar Wilde: “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.” Cut to: a clearly miserable Seth Rogen, presumably very married indeed. Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite” may start simply enough — marriage is bad, just look at this broken man — but it almost instantly shifts into a different register that makes its comedic aspirations clear. It’s so silly and so simple: music teacher Rogen’s Joe just can’t get his goddamn folding bike out of a door, making a spectacle that his students can only stare at, one of them muttering a “what the fuck” for all of us.

But don’t let that simplicity fool you, because what Wilde is saying here (with a superb script by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, who know a thing about relationships gone bad) is something much bigger and bolder. She knows exactly what she’s doing, how to calibrate between big laughs and broken hearts, how to use her cast to great effect, and how to surprise her audience at nearly every turn. This is less than two minutes into the movie, wonderfully setting the stage for the crackling, crazy entertaining dinner party from hell to come.

While Joe might be dragging his ass through his downbeat life (folding bike very much in tow), his wife Angela (Wilde) is going through her own motions, which happen to be amped up by her naturally anxious personality. Angela is preparing the pair’s stunning San Francisco apartment (an inspired setting, rife with both sprawling rooms and a slightly off-kilter floor plan that keeps us just confused enough) for something rare: company! The long-time couple don’t have many friends and they don’t have many people over, so tonight’s dinner with their upstairs neighbors has provided Angela with something very big to fixate on.

How much does she need something to fixate on? She bought a new rug and at least six kinds of cheese for the occasion. She is making a fucking soufflé! Joe can’t even be bothered to pick up wine on the way home. Joe is barely in the door before the inevitably-compared-to “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” antics start unfolding. Made even more nerve-shredding by Devonté Hynes’ score, a tense offering that plays out (and loud!) during Joe and Angela’s seemingly constant bickering. But Wilde keeps things pitched just so, allowing the pair’s worst moments to still feel funny and relatable.

But Angela’s anxiety also makes her unpredictable (and unpredictable in an entirely different way than Wilde’s other great Sundance 2026 performance), and Wilde soon taps into a natural agility that only ups the comedic ante in what feels like her best performance yet. (There is a bit of physical comedy, early in the film, that involves Angela reacting to a ruined dinner with a comedic timing that instantly catapults Wilde to a new level, it’s a five-second moment that is aces enough to inform the rest of the film to come). Wilde’s expressive face and big eyes tap into a Lucille Ball elasticity; the film would be funny enough if it was only its director turning in such a hilarious performance, but she’s hardly alone in this endeavour.

With just four stars in the film, everyone has to count, and Wilde hasn’t skimped on her co-stars. Rogen’s Joe gets to play straight man, often serving as our eyes into an increasingly fraught affair. Wilde and Rogen are good enough together, and then, oh! Our guests of honor have arrived, Hawk (Edward Norton) and his girlfriend Pina (Penelope Cruz), the much-feared, long-desired neighbors from upstairs, mostly known to Angela and Joe through the very loud noises of their nightly love-making sessions.

If Joe and Angela’s simmering resentment and hard-won affection are one side of the coin, Hawk and Pina’s weirdo sexuality and wacky intrigue are the other. These two are into each other, and somehow, they’re also into the Joe and Angela show. (Of note, both are very good here, but Norton is taking such obvious delight in the whole thing, he just manages to edge out Cruz, who still gets her time to shine later in the film.)

Why have Hawk and Pina come to this ill-fated dinner? Why does Angela want them there so badly? Why can’t Joe even pretend to be a decent host? Eh, well, you can probably guess, just based on what we know of the two couples — miserable marrieds, sexually adventures strangers, etc. — but Jones and McCormack’s script has lots of fun getting there, with Wilde’s zippy direction and core foursome working their way through a comedy of manners that eventually feels like a comedy of errors.

Smart craftsmanship elsewhere helps everything glide along, including costuming choices from Arianne Phillips that cleverly set up the couples in opposition to each other and cinematography from Adam Newport-Berra that crafts interesting dynamics in artfully made frames. All of it feels impeccably chosen without being showy or affected.

As Wilde splits her couples and brings them back again, we are able to see different sides of each character and the roles they play within their relationships. Angela’s nerves make way for a giddy chemistry with Hawk (the two of them bond over, of all things, their shared love of rugs, one of many running jokes that keep up the clip). Joe’s mystified anger is softened by Pina’s easy grace (and, yes, yes, Rogen and Cruz do smoke a joint together at one point).

Wilde’s previous film, “Don’t Worry, Darling,” was somewhat similarly driven by questions about the price of relationships, the cost of the lies we tell, the impossibility of really knowing someone, but Wilde answers those same questions here with far more insight and entertaining humor (it cannot be overstated how fun it is to watch this one in a packed theater). The film’s third act stumbles a bit, trading in its high humor for darker emotions that Wilde cannot quite as deftly navigate (and with, unless I am very mistaken, a tiny, left-turn mystery about the true nature of Hawk and Pina).

Still, the rest of this meal (light on the soufflé, heavy on the jambon) is such a treat, a truly adult comedy with plenty to say and even more laughs to share. Accept this invite, and fast.

Grade: B+

The Invite” premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

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Circle Women Doc Accelerator Selects 2026 Nonfiction Projects

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The Circle Women Doc Accelerator today announced the projects that will take part in the latest edition of the training program for women and gender-expansive nonfiction filmmakers. 

Syria, Germany, Denmark, and Malaysia are just a few of the countries represented in this year’s selection. See the full list of titles below.

The programme begins on June 22nd in Edipsos, Greece, continuing in Portorož, Slovenia in October and then Trieste, Italy in January 2027. 

This year’s selection process was headed by Circle’s programme director Biljana Tutorov and Circle’s Co-Head of Studies Brigid O’Shea with the support of a selection committee consisting of writer and producer Suzy Gillet, film scholar Jelena Mišeljić, and two Circle alumni: director and producer Koval Bhatia and director and producer Zipporah Nyaruri.

This year’s mentors include director, producer, and scriptwriter Diana El Jeiroudi, director Salomé Jashi (Taming the Garden), director Gianluca Matarrese (GEN_), and producer and documentary consultant Lucila Moctezuma.

Among Circle’s alumni are Something Familiar by Rachel Taparjan (CPH: DOX 2026), White Lies by Alba Zari (IFFR 2026), Truck Mamma by Zipporah Nyaruri (IDFA 2025), River Dreams by Kristina Mikhailova (Berlinale Forum 2026 – Ecumenical Jury Award), Becoming Ema by Patricia Drati (CPH: DOX 2026), and In Between, A Place by Faezeh Nikozaad (Visions du Réel 2026). 

Selected Circle Women Doc Accelerator projects 2026-27: 

Rama Abdy / director (Syria)
Project: House No. 7
Producer: Hazar Yazji
Country of Production: Syria , Qatar

Sophie Ataya / director (Germany)
Project: Who We Are
Production company: SEERA FILMS
Producers: Thomas Kaske / Marion Schmidt
Country of Production: Germany

Sara Geurtsen / producer and writer (Germany)
Project: Sanctuary
Director: Areeb Zuaiter
Country of Production: United States

Ida Grøn / director (Denmark)
Project: The Inner Whale In My Ear
Production company: Purple Pictures aps
Producer: Cecilie Bolvinkel
Country of Production: Denmark

Beatrice Leong / director and producer (Malaysia)
Project: The Myth of Monsters
Production company: Gather Together
Country of Production: Malaysia

Diana-Elena Munteanu / director (Romania)
Project: The Digs
Production company: Remora Films
Producer: Ana Maria Vijdea
Co-Producer: Margaux Juvenal (Take Shelter)
Country of Production: Romania, France

Maja Prettner / director (Slovenia)
Project: Chasing Horses
Producer: Maja Prettner
Country of Production: Slovenia

Piano Primrin / director and writer (Thailand)
Project: A Journey to the Universe
Production company: Pop Pictures
Producer: Jeanne Sombatwattana
Country of Production: Thailand

Marta Smerechynska / director (Ukraine)
Project: Call Me from the Frontline
Producer Ukraine: Krystyna Petrenko (Cinema Bozen)
Producer France: Matthieu Belghiti (What’s Up Films)
Countries of Production: Ukraine, France

Dea Tcholokava / director (Georgia)
Project: Song to an Emerald Sky
Producer Georgia: Ketevan Kipiani (Sakdoc Films)
Producers Germany: Felipa Goltz, Maxime Pillip.
Co-Producer Germany: Gregor Streiber (Inselfilm)
Country of Production: Georgia, Germany

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Toy Story 5 Cast: Meet the Voice Actors Behind Every Character

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The fifth installment in Pixar’s franchise arrives more than 30 years after the original ‘Toy Story’ was released and welcomes Bad Bunny, Conan O’Brien, Alan Cumming and more to the franchise.

More than 30 years after the original Toy Story premiered, the beloved franchise is still going strong. The fifth installment hit theaters on Friday to rave reviews and early Oscar buzz.

Toy Story 5 also welcomes several big names to the franchise, with voice roles from Bad Bunny, Conan O’Brien, Alan Cumming and more. Taylor Swift also wrote and performed a new song for the film, “I Knew It, I Knew You.”

While franchise staples like Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack need no introduction, we’re taking a look at all the stars lending their voices to Toy Story 5, including the A-listers joining the series for the first time. Read on to find out who’s voicing which character.

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Little Dot Studios Renews Digital Pact With Toy Firm MGA Entertainment

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EXCLUSIVE: All3Media’s social media agency Little Dot Studios has renewed a strategic pact with toyco MGA Entertainment.

The expanded multi-year deal builds on a relationship established in 2021, which is based around growing MGA’s global brand portfolio on digital platforms and increasing community engagement.

Under the renewed agreement, Little Dot will continue as the specialist agency for MGA brands such as as Bratz, L.O.L. Surprise!, Rainbow High and Baby Born. The contract covers end-to-end YouTube channel management, and includes paid audience development and production of platform-native content ranging from compilations and clips to YouTube Shorts.

The partnership comes ahead of several MGA milestones, including the 25th anniversary of Bratz and the tenth anniversary of L.O.L. Surprise!.

Ben Arnold, Co-Managing Director, Little Dot Studios U.S., said: “This renewed agreement reflects a shared ambition to position MGA’s brands at the forefront of digital engagement. By combining smart, data-led planning with creative storytelling, we’ll continue to grow audiences, build stronger connections with fans and deliver long-term value across the portfolio.”

Over the course of the partnership to date, Little Dot Studios has used proprietary data and insights to build out MGA’s YouTube ecosystem.

The news comes six months after Little Dot hired Arnold and Charles Wideska to lead Little Dot Studios US, the American arm of the All3Media-backed social media agency, production house and channel operator. A host of promotions in Germany and the UK accompanied the hires.

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