Director: Olivia Wilde
Starring: Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz & Edward Norton
Rated: R (sexual material, language & drug use)
Runtime: 1 hour & 47 minutes

 
Olivia Wilde’s latest directorial effort, “The Invite,” is one of those movies where you need to decide before purchasing your ticket whether you’re looking for entertainment or realism and art. If you just want something fun, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.

​“The Invite,” co-written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones and based on the 2020 Spanish film “Sentimental,” is about learning when to realize a long-term relationship has come to an end, and it does so through brutal bouts of marital bickering that are incredibly true to life.

“The Invite” is billed as a comedy, and it is funny. Seth Rogen, who plays the depressed, failed musician husband, has hysterical line readings and reactions to situations both typical and atypical, and Wilde, who plays the beleaguered wife, has a multitude of facial expressions that will both make you laugh and knock you off your feet with how terrifically expressive she is as an actress. And, when – maybe halfway to two-thirds of the way through the film – you find out exactly what their upstairs neighbors, played by Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton, are up to, it ups the humor ante even more.

But at the heart of the film is something incredibly unfunny: the remnants of a dead relationship and the process of coming to terms with it. Wilde and Rogen will crush you with their performances of characters we’ve likely seen or experienced in life before. The fights come early and often in the film and go on longer than you’d expect from a comedic film – yes, there are zingers involved, but you might wind up feeling more uncomfortable than amused as a viewer.

Norton and Cruz are terrifically cast as the supporting characters, the upstairs neighbors who have driven Joe crazy with their loud lovemaking. Norton’s Hawk is openly bemused by Joe’s truthfulness about the couple being in his home and plays it in a sly manner Norton is so good at, while Cruz, a sexologist by trade, is sexy and tempting in a way that is almost expected of a character played by her. One of the film’s best scenes comes from Norton explaining how he got the name Hawk, reportedly written by Norton himself, and Rogen’s reportedly ad-libbed response to it.

I’ve always been mesmerized by one-room stories – a film or TV episode that can hold its entire story within one setting. With the exception of the first scene, which shows Rogen’s Joe leaving his music teaching job, the film is told entirely within the couple’s apartment. One-room settings can make a story feel claustrophobic, and what can be more claustrophobic than a couple trapped in a dead relationship, and being the proverbial fly on the wall watching it unravel?

“The Invite” will keep you on the edge of your seat, even if, at times, it makes you so uncomfortable with the constant fights that you want to jump off. 

Director: Andrew Stanton
Starring: Joan Cusack, Tom Hanks & Tim Allen
Rated: PG (some thematic elements & rude humor)
Runtime: 1 hour & 42 minutes

 
“Toy Story 5” has proven that Pixar can probably do anything it likes with the ‘Toy Story’ universe, even without Woody and Buzz Lightyear at the forefront.
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“Toy Story 5” is Jessie’s movie, with Woody and Buzz taking supporting roles, and it doesn’t negatively impact the film.

In “Toy Story 5,” directed by Andrew Stanton and written by Stanton and Kenna Harris, Bonnie, the human child who owns the toys, struggles to make friends because she still plays with physical toys, while all the other children in her neighborhood have iPads and stare at screens all day. Yes, Pixar is taking on the proliferation of technology within our culture, especially with young children, but it’s not with the force of a hammer to the head, though Jessie, voiced by Joan Cusack, certainly has a militant attitude toward tech at first, but rather a reminder of how important imagination is for children.

When Bonnie’s parents get her a Lilypad, the film’s version of an iPad, she immediately connects with a few girls from her dance class, and voilà, she has made friends, but it soon turns out they’re more of a Mean Girls clique, who cruelly mock Bonnie when they realize she still has physical dolls.

“Toy Story 5” is the girl-oriented entrant in the ‘Toy Story’ franchise and should be an emotional experience for young girls and parents of girls. In some ways, the film is Pixar’s “Barbie.” But even I, as a 38-year-old male without children, found the film to be moving and enjoyable, though it is without a doubt the least humorous of the franchise – at least to my memory.

It’s interesting to see Woody, voiced by Tom Hanks, and Buzz, voiced by Tim Allen, take a backseat in this entry – although there are actually more Buzz Lightyears than ever, as a misplaced shipment of the toys plays a huge role in the film. Even though it’s an obvious “hey, where are these guys?” moment while watching, you’re never disappointed by their lack of screen time because the Jessie/Bonnie storyline works.

There are some interesting additions to the ‘Toy Story’ world, the biggest being that of Greta Lee as Lily, the Lilypad screen, who plays the villain of the film, though one who certainly means well. This is where the film doesn’t take as hard a line against technology as some thought it might, but really, why would the franchise that changed how animated movies are made do such a thing? “Toy Story” once was the Lilypad of animation, after all.

My favorite character addition to the series is Conan O’Brien as the potty-training toy Smarty Pants. O’Brien just feels like someone who belongs in this series. Craig Robinson as Atlas, a hippo GPS, and Shelby Rabara as Snappy, a camera, are also nice additions to the large cast of toys. Old favorites like Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, Rex, and Slinky Dog are back, too, but might get one or two lines tops.

If you’re expecting a laugh riot, this isn’t going to be the ‘Toy Story’ for you, but once again this franchise proves its worth when it comes to emotional storytelling about growing up, as helped by our favorite anthropomorphic friends.