There’s been a sting of standing ovations, which don’t happen often at Sundance, the fourth of which from our count was tonight’s world premiere of Olivia Wilde’s sexual comedy The Invite at the Eccle Theatre. And at a time when comedies are rare on the big screen, here’s one that triggered back-to-back shared laughter from the crowd.
Pic follows two couples who live in the same apartment complex; Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz’s progressive, sexually open couple, and Seth Rogen and Wilde’s married in misery twosome. The two couples get together for wine, cheese and dessert — with a lot of laughs and something that speaks to middle age.
“There’s a seven hour movie you would have liked,” said Wilde who workshopped the screenplay with scribes Rashida Jones and Wil McCormack. The pic is an English language remake of the Cesc Gay Spanish film The People Upstairs.
“We just dug into it with generosity and poured a spirit into with personal ideas,” said Wilde,”The cast brought this creative energy every day.”
Wilde told the crowed Eccles that the movie, which essentially takes place in one apartment, was shot in order, which was “such a luxury; we just kept generating ideas as we went.”
Similar to how Charli XCX is doing double duty at Sundance (she had Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex and The Moment last night at the Eccles), so is Wilde who after starring I Want Your Sex is a double threat here as a star and director on The Invite.
Previous standing ovations here at this year’s Sundance was Josephine, Wicker and Fing!
