Joe and Angela’s marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places.

Sometimes movies just feel made for you and The Invite, the latest from director Olivia Wilde (Booksmart, Don’t Worry Darling), also features her in front of the camera, and everything about it seems pulled from a How to Make Jonathan Love a Movie handbook. Great actors doing great work? Check. I kind of want the entire cast nominated for Oscars but especially Norton who crushes a late in the film monologue, and Wilde who is just next-level amazing. Well-written dialogue that weaves between psychologically devastating and piss your pants hilarious? Check. There were a couple moments where I couldn’t catch my breath from laughing so hard. An intimate character study that takes place in one location over roughly the same time as the film itself and feels like live theater? Check. See Blue Moon, one of my favorites from last year or a classic like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

The movie is based on a stage play by Cesc Gay, a Spanish writer-director who has already turned this into a film more than once. This version was written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack. It’s essentially a dinner party involving two couples, the regrettably married Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde) and their neighbors Pina (Penelope Cruz) and her boyfriend Hawk (Norton), who soon reveal they have an open relationship and wouldn’t mind swinging those doors towards Joe and Angela.

It’s a messy, funny (so, so funny), heavy, thought-provoking ride that takes turns both expected and surprising. And really lets the cast shine. Wilde balances humor, sadness, regret, lust, anger and deviousness, sometimes without words, all so well it’s crazy that she found the time to direct in between crushing it. She’s been good before, but she’s never been this good. Few have this year.

I imagine this will have no trouble hanging in there for my top 10 this year.

Jonathan’s grade – A