Speaker 1: If you've been in a relationship long enough, you know
Speaker 1: that eventually you'll start getting on each other's nerves. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's the way they chew, or they don't help out
Speaker 1: around the house much, or they don't support your passions.
Speaker 1: The best solution is always good communication. Maybe bring in
Speaker 1: a therapist and make sure you can get there. But
Speaker 1: if that doesn't work out, you could always have the
Speaker 1: neighbors over for a visit. It's the Invite. I'm Ronald
Speaker 1: Young Junior, and I'm leaving the theater.
Speaker 2: With you get what is to be sod Ever is
Speaker 2: easy because and you based the fison the boos.
Speaker 3: That you go today. All right, This is Ronald and
Speaker 3: I am leaving the theater after seeing The Invite. The
Speaker 3: Invite written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, directed by
Speaker 3: Olivia Wilde, starring seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, and
Speaker 3: Edward Norton.
Speaker 1: And per Usual.
Speaker 3: For a complete listing of the cast and crew, you
Speaker 3: could check out the link in our show notes.
Speaker 1: It is just me today, Okay. The Invite is a.
Speaker 3: Movie about a disillusioned married couple who are going through
Speaker 3: a tough time in their relationship.
Speaker 1: And they have.
Speaker 3: A dinner party, or they invite their neighbors over to
Speaker 3: their upstairs neighbors to come over and see the new
Speaker 3: renovations to their apartment and to have a bit of
Speaker 3: a dinner, a little hangout, a little little chill session.
Speaker 3: The disillusion married couple is played by Seth Rogan and
Speaker 3: Olivia Wilde, and the neighbors are played by Penelope Cruz
Speaker 3: and Edward Norton. One of the main conflicts of the
Speaker 3: movie is that the upstairs neighbors, Edward Norton and Penelope
Speaker 3: Cruz are having a lot of loud sex, which is
Speaker 3: disruptive to Seth Rogan and Olivia Wilde, and it's also
Speaker 3: highlighting the parts of the relationship that they are dissatisfied with.
Speaker 3: I was told that the inspiration of this movie was
Speaker 3: Twelve Angry Men. Twelve Angry Men is one of my
Speaker 3: favorite movies. I think it's also a play if I'm
Speaker 3: not mistaken. It's one of my favorites. I know that,
Speaker 3: and I saw it when I was in eighth grade.
Speaker 3: Maybe I think our teacher showed it to us, and
Speaker 3: it was very, very very good. It really set the
Speaker 3: tone for any movie about a jury that came after
Speaker 3: it will be compared to Twelve Angry Men, But one
Speaker 3: of the main parts about that is that it was
Speaker 3: all set in one room. The entire movie takes place
Speaker 3: in one room, and that is what is happening in
Speaker 3: the invite. This movie does a very good job of
Speaker 3: playing with tension from the very beginning. There is an
Speaker 3: instance in which Olivia and I'm forgetting their character name,
Speaker 3: so you're gonna have to bear with me. Olivia and
Speaker 3: Seth Rogan are in a fight from the very beginning,
Speaker 3: and the tension is just continuing to ratchet up. They're
Speaker 3: in a fight about whether or not they told each
Speaker 3: other about the neighbors coming over. They're in a fight
Speaker 3: about whether or not, Seth Rogan, you can eat the
Speaker 3: cheese despite being hungry, or eat a pickle despite being hungry.
Speaker 3: They are Olivia Wilde is making a soufle. There is
Speaker 3: just a lot going on. He gives her a compliment
Speaker 3: at one point and says that her top looks very
Speaker 3: nice on her, and she responds, you could say things
Speaker 3: like that to me, or you never say anything like that,
Speaker 3: So there was it was a response that indicated that
Speaker 3: he never says stuff like that to her, even though
Speaker 3: he just did, which was it's very indicative of a
Speaker 3: couple who is sick of each other that type of fighting,
Speaker 3: and so that is the initial tension that Edward Norton
Speaker 3: and Penell Cruise are kind of walking into. This is
Speaker 3: a very performance driven film, and it's it's wild because
Speaker 3: plot wise, we're really going from charged moment to charged moment.
Speaker 1: We're not necessarily going from.
Speaker 3: It's really just like a work up to a certain point,
Speaker 3: and then the movie is about to end. It's an
Speaker 3: hour and forty seven minutes. I think it probably could
Speaker 3: have been even tighter, but an hour and forty seven
Speaker 3: minutes is pretty good.
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting in one ro I'm like, well, I
Speaker 1: guess would that be considered real time?
Speaker 3: There weren't really a lot of cuts, I would say,
Speaker 3: from one part to a different part, So yeah, I
Speaker 3: think it's pretty close to real time, if not completely
Speaker 3: in real time, not like one shot or anything like that.
Speaker 3: I think the easiest way to talk about this is
Speaker 3: to talk about the performances and then to talk about
Speaker 3: maybe some of the fights.
Speaker 1: Olivia Wilde directs this movie, but she also to me, is.
Speaker 3: The standout actor in this film followed very closely by
Speaker 3: Seth Rogan, then followed very closely by their interactions between them.
Speaker 3: Ed Norton and Penelope Cruz also did a good job,
Speaker 3: but what they had to do was different from what
Speaker 3: Seth Rogan and Olivia Wilde had to do. They were really,
Speaker 3: in some ways oblivious to the tension, or better yet,
Speaker 3: not engaging the tention, or engaging the tension in a
Speaker 3: way that.
Speaker 1: Oblivious to the tension is the wrong word.
Speaker 3: The way in which they engaged the tension was often
Speaker 3: to diffuse. It was to acknowledge that it was there,
Speaker 3: directed in a different, different way, or acknowledge it was
Speaker 3: there an attempt to resolve it.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't like the tension.
Speaker 3: They weren't experiencing the discomfort that the audience is feeling
Speaker 3: from this relationship that's kind of unraveling in front of us,
Speaker 3: so they didn't have to do as much work. Olivia
Speaker 3: Wilde is performing white woman ness in a very, very
Speaker 3: excellent way. It almost reminds me of Oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: forget her name. I think it's Kate, Oh I forgot
Speaker 3: her name. She's on Instagram. She always does these white
Speaker 3: woman characters and they're always hilarious. It's gonna I'm not.
Speaker 3: I don't even think I can look up her name
Speaker 3: to she only pops up. I follow her on Instagram
Speaker 3: and I do not know her name, but every time
Speaker 3: she shows up in something, I'm so happy to see her. Ugh. Anyway,
Speaker 3: she does very good job of being like the trope
Speaker 3: of the white woman, and Olivia Wilde is kneeling just
Speaker 3: a particular type of white woman that we all know.
Speaker 3: If you see the film, you'll be like, oh, I
Speaker 3: know her. Yeah, this is like there's there's some anxiety there.
Speaker 3: There is this sense of wanting to be liked and
Speaker 3: wanting to be accepted, but also wanting things in a
Speaker 3: very particular way, but also not wanting to be seen
Speaker 3: as uncool or as a Karen, or as any type
Speaker 3: of unacceptable white woman. Just very this kind of crippling
Speaker 3: self awareness I would call it. Olivia Wilde's performing it excellently, excellently.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just it's palpable through the screen. I
Speaker 3: really really feel what's happening her with Seth Rogan. The
Speaker 3: fact that they're allowed to kind of in some ways
Speaker 3: be openly hostile to each other makes this the type
Speaker 3: of movie that a different version of this would be
Speaker 3: watching people play nice and then unravel over the film,
Speaker 3: whereas this one is more like, there's no there's no
Speaker 3: hiding the tension that exists between these two. There's no
Speaker 3: hiding it. So it is still simmering and it is
Speaker 3: still kind of sometimes played beneath the surface, but it's
Speaker 3: also seth Rogan's role is kind of there to be like, no,
Speaker 3: I'm upset, and I am and I do want to
Speaker 3: talk about this and this is upsetting to me. But yeah, sure,
Speaker 3: I'll play along for your dinner party. That's kind of
Speaker 3: what he's doing. He's like, yeah, sure, let's go eat, Yeah, sure,
Speaker 3: let's take a tour. I'm gonna smoke a jay. It's
Speaker 3: very much that is kind of what he's doing throughout
Speaker 3: the course of the movie. Whereas Olivia Wilders where like
Speaker 3: is everybody okay, okay, oh honey, don't do that, don't
Speaker 3: do that, And she's showing anxiety in a way that
Speaker 3: I think she thinks that she's still trying to do
Speaker 3: a good job of hiding it, but everyone can tell
Speaker 3: that she is having a tough time. And so when
Speaker 3: this movie gets to kind of its main point, which
Speaker 3: is that relationships are hard, especially if you've been in
Speaker 3: one with a person for a long time, and the
Speaker 3: ways in which we blame each other, i e. The
Speaker 3: closest person that we can find for our dissatisfaction. It
Speaker 3: does that very well. I've been in many relationships in
Speaker 3: which I felt many is the wrong word. I've been
Speaker 3: in relationships in which I felt ultimately dissatisfied about what
Speaker 3: was happening in the relationship, and I have blamed I've
Speaker 3: blamed partners for it. I've been like, this is not
Speaker 3: this is obviously this is happening because I'm in the
Speaker 3: wrong relationship, not because I'm unhappy in any other way,
Speaker 3: or not because I'm failing to communicate in a way
Speaker 3: that would be effective. And several times the ethos of
Speaker 3: this movie is really saying, what are you going to
Speaker 3: do about it?
Speaker 1: How are you going to change that?
Speaker 3: How are you going to change your circumstances in front
Speaker 3: of you?
Speaker 1: What can you do differently?
Speaker 3: And it's wild because I watch a movie like this
Speaker 3: and I automatically start thinking about myself and say, yeah, well,
Speaker 3: what would I change about me? What could I do differently?
Speaker 3: The problem is I often assume that it's me, which
Speaker 3: Seth Rogan does well. Seth Rogan does a very good
Speaker 3: job of there's an allusion to something happening and Seth
Speaker 3: being surprised that he would be included in the something
Speaker 3: that's happening.
Speaker 1: That's a very thinly veiled.
Speaker 3: Try to keep it away from spoilers here, but he's like, oh,
Speaker 3: also me, and I feel that with him, where I'm
Speaker 3: just like, oh, I would also be included in this,
Speaker 3: or oh, you're interested in me, or oh, yes, you're
Speaker 3: talking to me that type. Whenever I think about that feeling,
Speaker 3: I know that that is very the feeling of self
Speaker 3: inadequacy or surprise to be desired or to be wanted
Speaker 3: in a certain way. Is it is something that it
Speaker 3: hurts relationships. And I think that they performed it that well.
Speaker 3: Is I mean, it's just very good. I'm not doing
Speaker 3: a very good job because it's hard to talk about
Speaker 3: this movie without just straight up saying what's going on.
Speaker 1: So I'll jump into spoilers real quick starting now.
Speaker 3: I would encourage you that if you're going to see
Speaker 3: this movie, to go see it and then come back
Speaker 3: and listen to the spoilers. But I think it's important
Speaker 3: to really like get into the nitty gritty of what
Speaker 3: the movie's about.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna talk about some spoilers.
Speaker 3: So the whole thing is that they're upstairs neighbors, are
Speaker 3: their polyamorous, their swingers, and they have come downstairs because
Speaker 3: they want to invite.
Speaker 1: Seth Rogen and Olivia.
Speaker 3: Wilde to have sex with him, to have group sex
Speaker 3: with them, and it's.
Speaker 1: Seth Rogan Is is surprised.
Speaker 3: He's like, wait, also me, like you would also want
Speaker 3: me to be a part of this, which is very subtle,
Speaker 3: but it also speaks to like something very specific that
Speaker 3: I know of myself as a man. And I won't
Speaker 3: talk more generally about men, but it will say the
Speaker 3: idea that I could be included or I could be
Speaker 3: desired is somewhat novel, and I think he does a
Speaker 3: very good job of performing that. Penelope Cruz is meant
Speaker 3: to be kind of like the facilitator, very sexy throughout
Speaker 3: the throughout the film, and so when the sex parts
Speaker 3: start coming up, there's a way in which she is
Speaker 3: approaching it where she feels like she is facilitating the
Speaker 3: connection for all four of them, followed closely by Edward Norton,
Speaker 3: who is kind of doing the the a similar role,
Speaker 3: but not exactly what Penelope Cruz is doing. He's more
Speaker 3: like a He almost gives more ra camp counselor vibes
Speaker 3: like hey, guys, you know if you're upset, like, let's
Speaker 3: try to work through this, Like, come on, let's all
Speaker 3: work together. He's more like being amenable to the situation
Speaker 3: that is unfolding in front of him, whereas the more
Speaker 3: resistance is coming from Seth Rogan. And this kind of
Speaker 3: like I'm trying to figure out. In Olivia Wilde's case,
Speaker 3: she is very interested and very game for what could
Speaker 3: happen next between them. She doesn't need much convincing to say, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 3: let's do this. I've heard Padelope cruizes orgasms from upstairs.
Speaker 1: I would like that. How can I also be a
Speaker 1: part of this?
Speaker 3: And so like, the tension that exists between Olivia Wilde
Speaker 3: and Seth Rogan comes out of this kind of resentment
Speaker 3: towards each other, for each of them being the perceived
Speaker 3: source of their unhappiness. I am unhappy because my wife
Speaker 3: makes me miserable. I am unhappy because my husband is miserable.
Speaker 3: And it's funny because seth Rogen at one point says,
Speaker 3: why don't you just let me be miserable, and Olivia
Speaker 3: Wilde is like, you have nothing to be miserable about.
Speaker 3: You are working in the field that you graduated in,
Speaker 3: and you live in a beautiful house. And he's like, well,
Speaker 3: I don't own the house, and I'm not playing music.
Speaker 3: I'm teaching music, and neither of them. They're kind of
Speaker 3: talking past each other in this specific way. And there's
Speaker 3: one part in which there's an indication that Olivia Wilde
Speaker 3: doesn't want to be a stay at home mom, that
Speaker 3: she would rather be using her art skills to be
Speaker 3: doing something because she went to art.
Speaker 1: School and is an artist.
Speaker 3: And then there's an indication that they used to be
Speaker 3: best friends and they're just not there anymore. So it's
Speaker 3: they play around with all of the tension, and it's
Speaker 3: interesting that the vehicle to kind of express the tension
Speaker 3: ultimately is group sex with their neighbors, or the idea
Speaker 3: or possible group sex with their neighbors.
Speaker 1: I'll say so.
Speaker 3: Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was
Speaker 3: pretty good. You know, it reminds me, it reminds me
Speaker 3: it feels like in the same family movie family of
Speaker 3: movies as the drama. Definitely more going on emotionally in
Speaker 3: this film than in quite a few other films. I mean,
Speaker 3: I just saw The Odyssey, so I think there's more
Speaker 3: going on emotionally in this film than in The Odyssey.
Speaker 1: I think The Odyssey does a pretty good job.
Speaker 3: But someone described it as saying it was a beautiful
Speaker 3: technical film, but it didn't make them feel anything, and
Speaker 3: I remember thinking, yeah, I could see that this is
Speaker 3: more on the The Odyssey is more on the wow
Speaker 3: factor than on the feelings factor, even though it tries
Speaker 3: to insert the feelings in there, and I did feel things,
Speaker 3: but I feel like in terms of feelings to impressive ratio,
Speaker 3: the impressive ratio impressive was higher than feelings, whereas this
Speaker 3: one very high on the feelings. Like the performances were
Speaker 3: very good, very impressive. There's nothing technically great about this film.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just technical in the sense of there's
Speaker 3: no big set pieces or anything like that. They're just
Speaker 3: in a house having a discussion.
Speaker 1: It's very much.
Speaker 3: Like a one act play or a two act play,
Speaker 3: like very much black box theater, almost where it's like
Speaker 3: it's not even important. The props or the thing that's
Speaker 3: in there. It's really the performances that matter the most. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but it really did make me feel and make me
Speaker 3: and I watched it first thing in the morning, so
Speaker 3: I still little groggy waking up all that, but it's
Speaker 3: still hit me right in the fields. It kind of
Speaker 3: reminds me of I just watched The Roses, and I
Speaker 3: think the Roses used more of all of the movie
Speaker 3: making toolkit that they have, meaning the scenes and the
Speaker 3: places and the sets, the costume design, all of that
Speaker 3: is way more important in a movie like that, which
Speaker 3: also is about relationships, than something like The Invite, where
Speaker 3: this is more about the bare bones performances. With all
Speaker 3: of that being said, I think it's a four star movie.
Speaker 3: I did not like it as much as I liked
Speaker 3: the drama. I think the drama did a little bit
Speaker 3: better job of conveying the isolation of truth in a
Speaker 3: way that this one is more about the conflict of reality.
Speaker 3: And it might feel like I'm just making up words,
Speaker 3: but the conflict of reality meaning that to exist and
Speaker 3: to be in partnership with someone means that in reality
Speaker 3: you are living in conflict. Now, some people would be like, no,
Speaker 3: you're not well, there is some conflict there because it's
Speaker 3: a different person. You have to make decisions together. You're
Speaker 3: never really just thinking of something you want to do.
Speaker 3: You're thinking of what is best for both of you,
Speaker 3: which is a conflicted reality, as opposed to having stated
Speaker 3: something and having to deal with the fallout of the
Speaker 3: truth being out in the open, which is what the
Speaker 3: drama is doing. Both of them are dealing with relationships
Speaker 3: with other people, and maybe I just prefer one over
Speaker 3: the other, but I just think the drama, it just
Speaker 3: it drew me into this better. It's kind of like
Speaker 3: the same way that I've really recently really would have
Speaker 3: been wanted to rewatch past lives. I've really wanted to
Speaker 3: rewatch that because I think that is another thing that
Speaker 3: is very good at confronting kind of both the conflict
Speaker 3: of reality and the isolation of truth, meaning that when
Speaker 3: the truth is out, how isolating it can feel, and
Speaker 3: then living in a reality that is by many that's
Speaker 3: conflicted by all accounts, is very conflicted.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I give this four stars.
Speaker 3: I don't even know if I reviewed this movie as
Speaker 3: much as I just talked existentially about a lot of
Speaker 3: things that are bothering me while losing some of my words.
Speaker 3: But yeah, this is Yeah, it's a four star movie.
Speaker 3: I think it's a four star movie. I give it
Speaker 3: the same as The Odyssey because I think it's the
Speaker 3: feeling spectrum in the opposite direction while not being a
Speaker 3: big visual spectacle, but feelings wise, I really felt this
Speaker 3: movie four stars and with that leaving the theater. Is
Speaker 3: a production of Oh It's Big Ron Studios. Currently it
Speaker 3: is Friday morning. Right now, it's noon. I got to
Speaker 3: this movie at nine twenty, watching it first thing. So
Speaker 3: I can edit this on Sunday or maybe later today
Speaker 3: or tomorrow, who knows, so I can get this out
Speaker 3: for Monday. Keep the train rolling along. Just got back
Speaker 3: from a week and a half long recording trip. Went
Speaker 3: to LA for a week, then to New York for
Speaker 3: three days. Now I'm back and I am writing and
Speaker 3: editing and about to announce the newest oh It's Big
Speaker 3: Ron Studios project. That announcement will come first on Patreon.
Speaker 3: My goal is to announce it very soon on Patreon.
Speaker 3: I am my own biggest enemy. I have to actually
Speaker 3: film the announcement. Make sure I know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: make sure it's a video that makes sense. Then I
Speaker 3: have to edit the video, put it on Patreon while
Speaker 3: also planning to watch a movie. Put that out while
Speaker 3: also writing, listening to highlighting, editing, cutting tape, getting.
Speaker 1: Ready to give it to my editors.
Speaker 3: We can go back and forth about writing full episodes
Speaker 3: of the new podcast. It's a lot of labor. It's
Speaker 3: a labor of love, but it's still labor. If that
Speaker 3: means something to you, join the Patreon go to patreon
Speaker 3: dot com slash oh It's Big Ron, or go to
Speaker 3: the link in our show notes. Show art from Heather Wilder,
Speaker 3: theme music by the Mysterious Breakmasters. For more information about
Speaker 3: the invite, check out our show notes. You can follow
Speaker 3: me on Instagram, blue Sky, TikTok, threads, or letterboxed at
Speaker 3: Owitz Big Ron.
Speaker 1: That's at O H I T S B I g
Speaker 1: R O N.
Speaker 3: You can find out more about this show and other
Speaker 3: O It's Big Ron Studio shows by following us on
Speaker 3: Instagram at Ois Big Ron Studios. Leaving the theater will
Speaker 3: be back soon. Thanks for listening. I'm Ronel Young Junior and.
Speaker 1: I'm performing
Speaker 3: White Woman Nests in a very very excellent way.