A barely functioning couple (Olivia Wilde and Seth Rogen) invite their sexually liberated upstairs neighbours (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) over for Wilde’s most awkward dinner party since the Don’t Worry Darling wrap party.

The Invite sits (un)comfortably in the fashionable stress-comedy sub-genre (The Drama, Uncut Gems), but also carries a history of play-based movies about two couples having an explosive evening together (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Carnage). And while it seems lightweight next to Speak No Evil or The Coffee Table, The Invite‘s taut plotting and tight comedy elevate it above the likes of The Drama or Marty Supreme, serving the constant laughs needed to enjoy spending any amount of time in these people’s company.

A remake of a Spanish comedy (The People Upstairs) based on a play, The Invite is your classic chamber piece with four characters in one apartment. Wilde’s direction makes great use of the single space, shooting at odd angles to amp up the social tension, along with the now clichéd use of stabby strings to underscore the most awkward moments. But the film’s timing of both dialogue and visual comedy is highly effective, with Will McCormack and Rashida Jones’ screenplay recalling the domestic bickering of Nichols and May.

The quartet are perfectly cast and all doing what they do best; Rogen being an arsehole, Norton being smarmy, Cruz being seductive, and Wilde screaming at her co-stars (allegedly). She looks permanently on the verge of a total breakdown, and her relationship with Rogen hilariously captures those couples so seething with resentment that they cannot stop themselves from constantly arguing in front of people. Throwing the spark of the other couple onto this powder keg proves the ultimate test of their relationship, their bourgeois boundaries, and their ability to turn even the promise of an orgy into yet another row.

As in The Drama, the fact it even entertains the possibility of reconciliation is perhaps its biggest failing, alongside a cop-out ending that retracts the teeth it bares throughout the ordeal. But by keeping the heart-racing comedy coming, The Invite earns its seat at the ‘dinner party from hell’ canon and successfully rehabilitates its director, or ‘rewildeing’ for short.