The Invite · reception & legacy

How The Invite has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Premiered at Sundance 2026 to warm reviews and was instantly framed as Olivia Wilde's redemption picture — the film that moved the conversation off the Don't Worry Darling press-tour circus and back onto her actual directing.

What's debated

The early fault line is a critic-vs-audience split: near-rapturous reviews (96% on Rotten Tomatoes) against a much cooler audience response — nimble chamber dramedy, or a starry remake critics graded on the comeback curve?

Its footprint

Too new for memes, but Variety's tag — 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' redone as vintage Woody Allen — has become the shorthand reviewers and Letterboxd blurbs keep reaching for.

Where it stands

Weeks into release it has no settled place yet — currently filed as Wilde's back-on-form third feature and a fresh entry in the dinner-party-from-hell lineage.

Named by the director

Influences Olivia Wilde has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) — Wilde called it her number one influence — a 'master class' in making one room play like an emotional action film, with the camera destabilizing as the characters do.
• Scenes from a Marriage (1973) — She cited Bergman's marital autopsy as a huge influence on the film's anatomy of a couple in crisis.
• Le Bonheur (1965) — Wilde and cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra drew on Varda's film as a visual reference.
• Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) — Named alongside her DP as a touchstone for the film's look and relationship texture.
• Mike Nichols — Wilde built in intentional nods to Nichols's work, from The Graduate to The Birdcage.