{"id":2631510,"date":"2026-07-18T07:40:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T11:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/review-of-the-invite\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T07:45:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T11:45:54","slug":"review-of-the-invite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/review-of-the-invite\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Invite"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">8<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freview-of-the-invite%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2631510&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article explores signs of civilizational decline, such as decreasing fertility rates, cultural shifts away from conventional family values, and media that degrades marriage. It critiques contemporary representations of marriage in film, contrasting the normalized marital turmoil in modern movies like &#8220;Marriage Story&#8221; with earlier portrayals, such as in &#8220;Who&#8217;s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?&#8221;, which depicted marriage as an abnormal and often distressed institution. <\/p>\n<p>The discussion then focuses on the film &#8220;The Invite,&#8221; directed by Olivia Wilde, criticizing it for its bleak and exaggerated portrayal of relationships, including casual drug use, open marriages, and orgies. the film depicts highly unsympathetic characters whose discontent is exaggerated to the point of absurdity, suggesting a nihilistic view of marriage and social norms. The author laments that the movie lacks genuine engagement and seems to endorse a culture of moral decline, contrasting it with classic films that, despite thier flaws, offered more respectful and meaningful depictions of relationships. the piece reflects concern over cultural attitudes toward marriage and the decline of traditional values.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the signs of civilizational collapse are <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/healthcare\/4630281\/us-fertility-rate-continues-drop-2026-cdc\/\">sinking fertility rates<\/a>, a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/culture\/\">culture<\/a> that promotes the postponement or abandonment of the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/business\/2781142\/employee-egg-freezing-benefits-seek-profits-by-delaying-families\/\">pursuit of family life<\/a>, and the release of a widely acclaimed movie that denigrates <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/marriage\/\">marriage<\/a> itself.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4653437\/gop-olive-garden-pasta-pass-more-secure-than-elections\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Republicans joke Olive Garden\u2019s Never-Ending Pasta Pass requiring photo ID is more secure than elections<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4653048\/salena-zito-grateful-president-trump-shoutout-summit\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Salena Zito \u2018grateful\u2019 for Trump shoutout, reflects on summit<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4651630\/stephen-a-smith-slams-newsom-gender-affirming-care\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>\u2018Damn socialist\u2019: Stephen A. Smith slams Newsom on gender-affirming care<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOne should always be in love,\u201d reads the quote by <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine-life-arts\/1125708\/where-the-wilde-think-pieces-are\/\">Oscar Wilde<\/a> that opens the rancid new <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/comedy\/\">comedy-drama <\/a><em>The Invite<\/em>. \u201cThat is the reason one should never marry.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, works of art about unhappy marriages have been produced since time immemorial, but many earlier entrants existed within societies that still regarded healthy, contented marriages as the norm. For example, in Edward Albee\u2019s 1962 play (and the 1966 film by Mike Nichols) <em>Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,<\/em> the splenetic antagonism of the middle-aged academic couple George and Martha was shocking because it was not assumed to be a natural state of affairs. Their marriage, weighed down by deception and vengefulness, was clearly an anomaly. Yet countless contemporary movies, from Sam Mendes\u2019s <em>American Beauty<\/em> (1999) to Noah Baumbach\u2019s <em>Marriage Story<\/em> (2019), take marital decay as a given and assume that, far from being shocked by it, many viewers will relate to it. Sadly, that assumption is probably correct, but it doesn\u2019t make the movies worthwhile.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With<em> The Invite <\/em>\u2014 a remake of a 2020 Spanish-language film that has happily escaped my notice \u2014 director and costar Olivia Wilde makes further, creepier assumptions: that some audiences have become so desensitized to aberrant behavior that they will not only accept the central couple, Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde), and their expressions of hostility and indifference but will tolerate other once-transgressive behavior, such as casual <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/marijuana\/\">marijuana<\/a> use among characters coded as non-losers, open marriages, and even so-called \u201csex parties,\u201d all of which are plot points in this profoundly bad movie.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\">Penelope Cruz and Olivia Wilde in \u201cThe Invite.\u201d (Courtesy of A24)<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2026\/07\/localimages\/LA.Film2_.072226.jpg?w=696&#8243; height=&#8221;658&#8243; width=&#8221;1024&#8243; &#8220;https:><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Penelope Cruz and Olivia Wilde in \u201cThe Invite.\u201d (Courtesy of A24)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?<\/em> had the decency to locate George and Martha on the spectrum of marital plausibility \u2014 yes, they are miserable with and toward each other, but not irretrievably or irrationally so \u2014 but <em>The Invite<\/em> imagines Joe and Angela as being so fatigued and so wanton as to consider the abandonment of their vows on a whim. That the film (spoiler alert) suggests an eleventh-hour rapprochement is an entirely unpersuasive concession to conventional mores that Wilde (the director-actress, not the poet-playwright) plainly does not believe in.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another distinction between <em>Virginia Woolf<\/em> and <em>The Invite<\/em>: George and Martha, played in the film by Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, are somewhat companionable even in their unpleasantness. But Joe and Angela are irredeemably insufferable. Are we supposed to laugh when Joe, who teaches at a San Francisco music conservatory, is so disinterested in a class rehearsal that he walks out before it is over? Are we meant to chuckle when Angela, greeting her husband upon his arrival home, barks, hatefully, \u201cShoes off, please\u201d? These two live in the lap of luxury \u2014 their impeccably furnished apartment is weakly accounted for when it is revealed that Joe has inherited it \u2014 but they use it mainly as a site to squabble and spar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The reasons given are lame in the extreme: there is talk of Joe having been made sad by the dissolution of his mid-2000s band, and feminist-approved insights into the allegedly dull home life of Angela, who nonetheless seems to have access to unlimited funds to buy rugs, fancy cheeses, and new clothes. Grow up, people \u2014 show some appreciation for the fruits of American capitalism. That they share a daughter gives neither pause about excoriating one another.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those purchases, incidentally, are prompted by the \u201cinvite,\u201d an evening of anticipated schmoozing with Joe and Angela\u2019s upstairs neighbors, retired fireman Hawk (Edward Norton) and sex therapist Pina (Penelope Cruz). As inexplicable as Joe and Angela\u2019s determined unhappiness is Angela\u2019s drive to impress Hawk and Pina. Her strange concern with how she is perceived by them \u2014 she literally bought a new rug for the evening \u2014 is called out by Joe. This is the only stretch of the film that seems tethered to reality. \u201c\u2019Hawk\u2019 is it \u2014 like the bird?\u201d Joe jokingly says of his neighbor\u2019s absurd nickname, but his periodic bursts of common sense are outweighed by the fact that the visitors, as in <em>Virginia Woolf<\/em>, are never asked to leave.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4640938\/the-new-supergirl-is-a-cheerless-comic-book-movie\/\">THE NEW \u2018SUPERGIRL\u2019 IS A CHEERLESS COMIC BOOK MOVIE <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Then, in one of the raunchiest plot developments in a mainstream movie in memory, Hawk and Pina make it known that they have opened up their apartment for orgies, a revelation that would cause reasonable hosts to give them the heave-ho but which positively fascinates Joe and Angela. The couple further reveals that the main reason for their visit is to invite Joe and Angela to join their lewd arrangement \u2014 which, unbelievably, Joe and Angela agree to do. Here we have the endpoint of our culture of open-mindedness. Wilde maneuvers the film toward an endless series of monologues as Hawk shares the tragic reason for his present lifestyle, while Pina, putting on her therapist\u2019s hat, offers spontaneous counseling for Joe and Angela. Much of what has preceded this has been played for comedy \u2014 of a very sick sort \u2014 but the denouement, as far as I can see, is meant to be taken at least semi-seriously since it is followed by dramatic scenes of Joe and Angela seeming to part ways before tentatively rekindling\u00a0\u2026\u00a0something.<\/p>\n<p>Is <em>The Invite<\/em> suggesting that the institution of marriage is in such shabby shape that only the shock therapy of having insane and amoral neighbors can save it? What\u2019s worse, the film is never even slightly involving except for those scenes in which Joe, speaking for any normal people in the audience, sneers at his neighbors\u2019 outlandish lifestyle. No sane person would argue that this film is as remotely entertaining or edifying as those films that present more virtuous visions of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pope-leo-xiv-signals-orthodoxy-to-diplomats-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Pope Leo XIV signals orthodoxy to diplomats - Washington Examiner\">male-female relationships<\/a>, from Leo McCarey\u2019s <em>The Awful Truth <\/em>(1937) to John Ford\u2019s <em>The Quiet Man<\/em> (1952) to Roberto Rossellini\u2019s <em>Voyage to Italy<\/em> (1954), the last of which honestly portrayed a splintering marriage bandaged by spiritual revelation. To mention those movies alongside the likes of <em>The Invite<\/em> is to measure how far we have fallen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Peter Tonguette is the Life &#038; Arts editor of the <\/em>Washington Examiner <em>magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-25\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-4\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Signs of decline: low fertility, family neglect, anti-marriage films<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2691,"featured_media":2631511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/LA.Film_.072226.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651,538],"tags":[34310,25026,24260],"class_list":["post-2631510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","category-washington-examiner","tag-movie-review","tag-suspense","tag-thriller"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/LA.Film_.072226.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2691"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2631510"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2631514,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631510\/revisions\/2631514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2631511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2631510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2631510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2631510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}