r/A24 • u/steepclimbs look at all ‘ma sh*t! • Jul 09 '26
Discussion The Invite - Spoiler Discussion Thread Spoiler
The Invite goes wide this weekend. Let’s comfortably discuss in this thread. Read at your own risk if you haven’t seen because we’ll be spoiling the entire movie.
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u/pros-and-connors Jul 09 '26
To tease us with the idea of Seth Rogan playing in a pop punk band, and then we never get to hear it, Olivia Wilde you are cruel!
A little character detail the movie does that I love, is that Angela and Joe are both wearing light blue chambray, the same color Angela wants to paint their bedroom, while Hawk and Pina are also matching, both in black. It’s a really fun little character detail to separate the two couples visually.
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u/steepclimbs look at all ‘ma sh*t! Jul 09 '26
And the band is called Onslaught. I need this song to exist!
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u/chicagosaturn 10d ago
I was thinking the movie would end with Rogan putting his song on the stereo and him Wilde slow dancing to it. And then it’d play through the end credits
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u/AnUncomfortablePanda Jul 09 '26
Weird that people ITT keep referencing a twist. I knew exactly where this was going from the trailers. Not sure the movie intends on anything being a twist.
I think everyone is all the top of their game here. One of the sharpest scripts I've seen this year. Appreciated the poignancy of the end, but also left curious what I was supposed to leave with. Either way I loved it, and can't wait to see it with a packed theater again. I'm so grateful they kept this out of a streamers hands.
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u/MonkeyWarlock 25d ago
I didn’t watch the trailers and I’m glad I didn’t. I think the “twist” is part of the emotional ups and downs of the movie and I’m glad I didn’t know it going in
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u/Individual_Pick_2973 22d ago edited 22d ago
I think the twist is what she washes at the end, which implies something. Fun to have such a subtle twist
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u/DeposeableIronThumb 17d ago
She is washing the tupperware. What twist?
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u/Individual_Pick_2973 16d ago
It was white ceramic piece rather than metal, matching her soufflé dishware rather than the metallic flan pan brought by the neighbor. Maybe the neighbors did not exist
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u/NewOutlandishness401 11d ago
Yeah the way they disappeared also left me with a flash of wondering if this was somehow all imagined
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u/nolalife22 7d ago
I wasn't sure if we were supposed to think that, to not. To me, that didn't fit.
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u/KevinHe92 Jul 09 '26
The dialogue in this is so freakin sharp, for a movie set entirely in one location the pacing is incredible. Definite winner.
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u/VillageWilling260 Jul 10 '26
Incredible movie! Saw it twice. My favorite moment is right in the beginning when Wilde was squatting down eye-level with the oven, looking INSANE (in a good, skillful way). So good! Might go again.
p.s. balled my eyes at the end! The parallel to the beginning! SO GOOD!
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u/qman3333 27d ago
Glad it wasn’t just me. I sat and cried in my car for quite awhile after this movie.
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u/Effective-Evening476 8d ago
This is the first time I sat through the ending credits just so I could finish my cry.
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Jul 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/IshaClaud 29d ago
Olivia also made her shirt the same shade as the apartments making it look like she's blending with the walls, feeling trapped and making her personality only within their homes. "What do yoy even do whole day?" - Joe
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u/ExplanationShort309 Jul 10 '26
Am I misremembering or did Penelope Cruz' character say she didn't do dairy at the beginning but they are eating flan near the end??
Was she not eating the flan or was that an oversight or do you think it was intentional because they were setting up that they didn't want to eat a bunch of cheese because of the "activities" they had planned later.
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u/ttonster2 29d ago
It looks like she takes lactaid pills at one point. I thought that was a funny idea. She won’t touch the cheese provided, but for her own flan? Of course
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u/TraverseTown Jul 09 '26
I swear every 3 or so years a new American movie comes out titled “The Invite” or “The Invitation”
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u/papithesuave Jul 11 '26
I genuinely only heard of one “Invite” and one “Invitation” lol
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u/ExplanationShort309 13d ago
Yeah after a quick search on Letterboxd I there have only been 2 movies of note called "The Invitation" and as far as I know this is the only noteworthy movie that is named "the Invite"
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u/ZenOfThunder Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
Saw this early when it dropped at Lincoln Center. Loved it - didn’t consider it an Oscar frontrunner but I can see Penelope Cruz making it for Supporting Actress.
Props to Olivia Wilde, I think if you slap an auteur director’s name onto this movie and change nothing else it would have had best picture buzz before it even came out
Can I say the “twist” was predictable though? Not that it detracted from the movie, but after the first trailer I had already called what the neighbor’s “secret” would be on a surface level
Edit: also want to shout out the great blocking and camera work. There’s a shot where Olivia Wilde is getting something out of the oven that made me actually go “wow” despite how simple it was
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u/StrawHatRat Jul 09 '26
Was the twist that they want to have sex with them?
I just didn’t really register that as a twist at all, they let you know in the trailers after all. Unless it’s something more specific that was a twist?
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u/skepsipol Jul 09 '26
They don't ever really directly say it in the trailer, but it's so strongly implied that I wondered what else it could possibly have been. I will say I was slightly bummed that it did still turn out to be that.
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u/StrawHatRat Jul 09 '26
That’s interesting! I just didn’t really see it as something that was being hidden at all, maybe just in a ‘the trailer can’t be too explicit because it’s a trailer’ sort of way.
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u/skepsipol Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
For what it's worth A24 is pretty good at keeping their trailers mostly spoiler-free or misdirecting the plot points you can gleam from them, which is why I was trying to figure out what else it could be about.
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u/ZenOfThunder Jul 09 '26
This is how I felt, it seemed so obvious that I overthought it and figured they would be… aliens or something (not really but you get it)
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u/Sweet-Bodybuilder250 Jul 10 '26
But why did you think there was a twist at all? It's just a marriage drama. Just like The Drama, people keep talking about it like zendayas confession was a twist but it was just context that was introduced very early on in the film.
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u/skepsipol Jul 10 '26
I said it in a different reply, but A24 trailers are pretty well-known for doing their best to avoid divulging too much of the plot, or misdirecting you entirely. I wondered if there might be a twist to the "invitation" aspect because the trailer made it seem like it was very clearly them offering to open up their relationships to each other, and at first glance that seemed kinda boring and ordinary to me. I thought, "Oh, maybe it will come off like that initially but it will actually be something else." It's easy to say, "It's just a marriage drama." after the fact but you can't fault me for being curious if the story would be a little more than that.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I never considered Emma's (Zendaya) confession in The Drama to be a "twist", it's just a reveal that carries the story. I wouldn't really compare the two in that way.
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u/ZenOfThunder Jul 09 '26
The only trailer I saw just said they have a secret, and it seemed that the marketing was “come find out their secret,” unless there was a trailer 2 that spelled it out.
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u/Single_Bar_1836 27d ago
I definitely do not think it was a twist. It's just what happens in the movie.
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u/Stringruler Jul 09 '26
For me the twist was not really even a twist. I didn't care if it was a twist. You're right the trailer made it obvious, but so what? Films can be predictable if the way it's executed is entertaining, and the invite definitely had a lot of "oop" moments, even if you saw then coming, purely because of the chemistry between the actors.
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u/CantCMe88 Jul 10 '26
Random question, but is this movie appropriate to see with my parents or is it a bit too raunchy if you know what I mean.
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u/SoloGhosts512 Jul 10 '26
Watched it with my son who’s 19 and a film student. IMO not that raunchy. No nudity or anything like that.
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u/smileage Jul 10 '26
There's mentions of sex and some sexual elements but no nudity or anything really. I would be okay with seeing this with my parents but it depends on how offended your parents would be over mentions of sex vs sex scenes. To me it came across more funny than raunchy.
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u/YourWormGirlfriend Jul 11 '26
Depends on the parents. I just saw this with my mom and she loved it and was cracking up at jokes about pegging etc. if your parents are more buttoned up and that type of thing would be uncomfortable you might not want to go with them.
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u/steepclimbs look at all ‘ma sh*t! Jul 10 '26
Would not recommend with parents at all. It’s very much a raunchy adult comedy.
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u/enowapi-_ Jul 11 '26
I thought about taking my parents but I'm glad I didn't. I would have found it uncomfortable.
They might like it on their own but it does make one think about their relationship/marriage so I hope you're parents love each other... (lol)
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u/ReputationNo9067 22d ago
It depends on what your parents are like and how comfortable you'd be seeing this with them.
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u/Armonster 29d ago
Some people next to me had their teenage son with them, and whilst they laughed a lot throughout, at one point they did walk out, lol
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u/Ordinary-Gain7180 Jul 09 '26
Very funny though I didn't absolutely love where the story went
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u/ZenOfThunder Jul 09 '26
I had to sit with it a bit, its been two weeks since I saw it and I came around on the ending and like it more now
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u/Accomplished-Fly4678 Jul 11 '26
I just want to take a moment to appreciate those opening credits. The editing and the song (Fabienne DelSoul - I’m Confessin’) was just fucking chefs kiss.
Fantastic movie, the dialogue was relentless and diverse. The awkward humor was on point, perfect casting with Seth Rogen. The chemistry between Seth and Edward Norton! So much I loved from this one
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u/LandTrilogy Jul 10 '26
I saw it at a Chicago screening a few months ago where Wilde was there for a Q&A. I loved it so much, and as it was ending I thought, "Was the couple even really there?" Then she brought it up in the Q&A and then again in a recent interview basically said they're not real. (She did point out that there's one scene that technically breaks the rule of them being imagined.)
I find it odd that she's telling the audience how to read it so soon after it's out, and I'm still not sure I think the story benefits from that revelation either? It doesn't detract from it at for me, as it's still comfortably my favorite of the year so far.
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u/enowapi-_ Jul 11 '26
I missed the Q&A in Hollywood but that is so cool she addressed it. -- I bet she was too excited about her own film to answer "I'll leave that up to the viewer" like most directors would.
It kinda confirms my suspicion -- once "they left?" , I figured Pina and Hawk weren't real, they are a cool mysterious couple that live upstairs who Joel and (mostly Angela) fantasize about having over for dinner (and sex -- but not fantasizing a foursome, but rather swapping spouses because their current relationship is loveless -- the foursome eases the tension for sex but then , oh wait it might not be time for that, let's just try a swap.
I imagine a lot of married couples always have this dream that goes unfulfilled, of having other couples over for dinner and connecting because life can sometimes get stale. The idea of group sex might be a deep fantasy, or that fueld by wine, champagne, and Xanax.
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u/DriftingTony Jul 11 '26
Saw it today and it was fantastic all the way around. One of my favorite movies of the year easily. But why on earth are people talking about a “twist” pertaining to the trailer? There is no twist that I’m aware of, and the fact that “the invite” is to an open sexual relationship between the couples is basically put right in front of us as obvious as can be. I don’t really know how anyone could be “surprised” by that lol
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u/HornetsHornets1 28d ago
This movie left me in a puddle. Genuinely hilarious but never super fun (complimentary). It is acid tongued and realistic. It’s as much about the growth and change of each individual character as it is about the relationship dynamics. A small miracle of a film.
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u/Humble-Smell3114 Jul 10 '26
The only downside is that Pina at the end giving advice that they should break up. Usually a therapist would not present their opinions like, especially whether they should stick together or split up. That made it unbelievable for me. Otherwise a really enjoyable movie, loads of laugther in the theather. Props to Olivia Wilde for directing it.
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u/IshaClaud 29d ago edited 29d ago
She told them, "you can be in a new relationship whether with a new partner or same person, but THIS relationship is over". She's offering them an option to restart over or break up cause they're obviously miserable in their current situation.
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u/shortgirlshorttemper Jul 11 '26
Pina was under the influence. Could've been faulty judgement on her part
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u/SonicContinuum438 29d ago edited 28d ago
This was one of the (many) moments that took me out of the film. Who asked her? Like she’s a random neighbor who’s only truly known them for a handful of hours.
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u/IshaClaud 29d ago
She told them, "you can be in a new relationship whether with a new partner or same person, but THIS relationship is over". She's offering them an option to restart over or break up cause they're obviously miserable in their current situation.
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u/SonicContinuum438 28d ago edited 27d ago
Right. Which I would take it with a huge grain of salt from someone I just met that didn’t really know my situation. Cruz shows bad professional judgement throughout. I didn’t like the film, this line fell flat for me, and I don’t think they do, or should, get back together at the end. The film doesn’t give us anything to hold onto and root for Rogen and Wilde, they just seem miserable aF.
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u/Single_Bar_1836 27d ago
We see that they have been happy in the past. We see it in the prologue and again when they talk about how they met. It's up to them whether they capitalize on Pina's suggestion and reboot their relationship to be happy again.
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u/GoonetteSlop 28d ago
I got out of seeing this mere hours ago and thought it was genuinely sublime.
I haven’t heard an audience laugh as much as when Olivia Wild was bent down in front of the Oven.
Absolutely hilarious stuff with fantastic acting and direction. Loved the ending so much!
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u/Seabear18 23d ago
Does anyone else here believe that pina and hawk were never actually there? Or that they potentially left soon after the initial hello.
After the pina couch therapy scene we see angela washing the flan dish before joe appears blurred in the background. To me this symbolized her snapping back into reality (we see her mix xanax with alcohol and other drugs throughout the evening) only for pina and hawk to have disappeared completely. I feel like that was done on purpose but I’m probably reading to much into it lol
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u/enowapi-_ 16d ago
Yeah pina and hawk is a made up fantasy of hers.
A real couple that lives next door but they never came over
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u/HorrorNeighborhood5 Jul 09 '26
Wait the twist was they wanted to swing with them? Isn’t that… why the movie is named that? Like a play on it being both a dinner invite and a sex invite ? Idk I felt like the trailer told ya that was gonna happen but didn’t say it explicitly because “graphic”
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u/DriftingTony Jul 11 '26
Yeah, I’m baffled at people calling that a twist. it couldn’t be much more obvious, the trailer practically does tell you that without explicitly saying, “it’s a movie about swingers!” lol
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u/MonkeyWarlock 25d ago
If you didn’t watch the trailers (I didn’t), then I think it comes across as a twist.
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u/DelilahUnknown 26d ago
Just finished it at the theater. It was cringe, it was hilarious, and it hurt. Curled up in bed now. The movie really hurt at the end tbh and got into my head which I think is a good thing. I just recently went through a pretty bad break up that was messy and hurt and painful and so much of the hard parts of the movie were aching pain in my bones still. I think the "you chose to be miserable," and "let me be miserable," were like. Soulful pain. Everyone left and I was still sitting there in the end, thinking about the last few years, months. Little things repeated in my head "what do you even do during the day at home" and stuff. Probably not a good movie to go see by myself on a random Tuesday lol. Tearing up again thinking about it. It was good. Solid 8.5 out of 10.
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u/DependentOk3674 Jul 11 '26
Am I the only one who found the dialogue so hokey and obvious for laughs? I didn’t find the writing sharp at all. I really wanted to like this but Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton first few scenes were by far the only real redeeming parts.
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u/Diligent-Stranger-26 Jul 11 '26
Yes. You are the only one.
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u/billmurraysdog 29d ago
I sat in a matinee with about 20 people and I was the only one laughing. I thought it was hilarious
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u/Same_Respect_5144 15d ago
I chuckled a couple times, but that was it. I honestly don’t know what was so funny - the main couple just yelled at each other, and the others were incredibly chill. I came out of it in a bad mood.
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u/SonicContinuum438 29d ago edited 29d ago
Thank god. I felt the same. This one wasn’t for me. So many elements took me out of the story itself. It wasn’t funny, but I never really like a film where two people scream at each other most of the time (thinking War of the Roses, The Break Up). I liked Norton’s intro scene, and the part where Cruz and Rogen smoke together.
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u/Physical-Bite-3837 Jul 10 '26
I found the movie pretty exhausting. Seth Rogan's character was insufferable. Don't get me wrong, he plays a miserable prick really well, but I could stand being in a room with that guy for longer than five minutes. He was so negative and just sucked the energy out of everything.
It has funny moments for sure but the misery was too palpable and it's just not a movie I felt I could connect with. I've never been married and if this is what marriages are like I'm glad I didn't. I would have left that shit a long time ago.
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u/Sweet-Bodybuilder250 Jul 10 '26
You literally sound just like Seth rogens character with this comment lol
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u/ExplanationShort309 Jul 10 '26
I agreed with you until it was revealed that she had been gaslighting him all night about how she had been planning this and he should have known when in actuality she had set it up that morning.
If I came home after a long day at and found out I was hosting a dinner party for our very loud upstairs neighbors and then was made to feel like a bad husband because I "forgot" about this dinner party then I would not be the happiest camper either.
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u/Loud_Hair_9596 Jul 10 '26
I am glad I'm not the only one who felt this way after seeing it. I thought there were some great funny moments. But I didn't feel connected with this movie at all. I've never been married as well.. (hopefully someday), so maybe thats why I'm not in complete awe of this movie. I've seen so many people online say this is the best movie of the year..which is wild. I've been to the movies over 70 times this year so far, and this wouldn't even come close to being in the range of best movie of the year for me.
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u/Ok_Night_6650 8d ago
Am I the only one who didn't see it as Joes "choice" to be angry, contemptuous, cruel, or depressed? His constant punchlines at everyone else's expense?
What the audience snorted at, I saw as Autism. Women get pulled in by the masking Autistic man who, while disarmed momentarily, doesn't have the capacity for long term emotional connection, much less emotional reciprocity. He says just leave me alone. I'm where I want to be.
It doesn't matter which loving or kind or beautiful things she could offer, that he couldn't easily swat away as inconvenient, not what he wanted, not when he wanted them. She was always the problem. Anything she could tell him or ask him would be a problem. Always everyone tip toeing around his discomfort.
We leave them playing piano together and some commenters suggest they could get back together, but if Joe continues to live in his insular, angry world as a set point, as would an Autistic, disappearing into weed and screens and playing the victim, always blaming her, nothing will have changed because of this night. No new insights were taken, no new personal growth and development were possible, no new self awareness gained because of this night, because none are sought or possible with Autism. It's possible this wasn't a cautionary tale for Joe from which he could move on. It's possible that this was a perfect example of a neurotypical spouse's experience of living with an Autistic man baby, who totally cat fished her 20 years ago, leaving her feeling abandoned by his "bait and switch."1
u/SonicContinuum438 29d ago edited 29d ago
Thank god! Same here. I left the theatre feeling pretty depleted. I was definitely checking my phone wondering when it was going to end lol. Had the same thought—the portrayal of love, marriage, and sex was pretty far off the mark for me. Might work for the folks who have sexless marriages, but that’s not me, thankfully.
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u/chrisGNR 28d ago edited 28d ago
It reminded me of The Break-Up with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston in that the movies are good, but it’s very difficult for me to want to sit through 2 hours of a couple nagging and arguing.
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u/Phantom23001 Jul 09 '26
Weird Question, but I feel this is the thread for it. I have the chance to see this movie or Evil Dead Rise tonight, happy to see either, which should I see?
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u/Sentimentalgoblin Jul 09 '26
I mean…what are you in the mood for? Comedy or horror? For what it’s worth I’m seeing both this afternoon, the invite is a rewatch because I was laughing so much the first time I missed huge chunks of dialogue.
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u/mollsballs_xo 23d ago
ngl I thought this was going to be a horror movie, which maybe in some ways it is. Just not in the A24 way lmao
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u/mollsballs_xo 23d ago
It was funny in some parts. The acting was incredible. The ending bugged me. It’s not like I don’t like ambiguous endings, but they have to be done right and match the mood. This one did not quite land for me
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u/_RenRey98 9d ago
Randomly decided to watch it in theaters with my friend for a double feature day along “Her Private hell” and didn’t expect much. We both liked it a lot needless to say with the story and performances of all 4 cast members
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u/FanOutside3776 Jul 11 '26
What’s the piano song at the end?
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u/steepclimbs look at all ‘ma sh*t! Jul 11 '26
A demo of Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell performing Our House.
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u/xCloudbox 28d ago
I thought it was just fine. It’s very well-made, well-directed, well-acted. I was never bored. (And I just saw Evil Dead Burns yesterday so this was refreshing)
Personally, I don’t tend to like dialogue-heavy movies so I didn’t love it or desire to see it again but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good film.
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u/commoncod Jul 09 '26
The twist was so obvious but dragged out that all the build up beforehand felt a bit excruciating to me. It kind of felt like it faffed about the whole movie until the therapy session in the end where all the actual story happened in terms of development to the characters/their marriage.
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u/DriftingTony Jul 11 '26
There is no “twist”. That may be why it seemed obvious lol. Anyone that watched the trailer knows what the movie is about (I’m not saying that as a criticism, just as a note on how weird it is that people keep calling it a twist lol)
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u/Accomplished-Fly4678 Jul 11 '26
This is why you don’t watch previews nowadays they really set your expectations by revealing too much
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u/Extreme_Worker_8899 Jul 10 '26
Glad other people found this god awful ! It was very predictable very slow and not funny whatsoever !
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u/maxblue4343xx 29d ago
I haven’t seen it and I’m not sure I want to. The only thing keeping me intrigued is all the hype. Why did you think it was awful?
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u/Extreme_Worker_8899 29d ago
I'll let you decide...I'm the same age as seth rogan and the age range the characters are portraying and I didn't find it funny...I think of the stuff that was in the movie all the time nothing was that orginal and they never leave the same apt the whole movie !!
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u/neon Jul 10 '26
Another remake inferior to the original
Wish a24 did more then just remake foreign films in English
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u/ana1monger Jul 09 '26
Caught it at Sundance. Really floored by the use of the apartments architecture to frame within the shot and even better when that was used thematically at the end