2015 Directed by Karyn Kusama
Will and his new girlfriend Kira are invited to a dinner with old friends at the house of Will’s ex Eden and her new partner David. Although the evening appears to be relaxed, Will soon gets a creeping suspicion that their charming host David is up to something.
My wife and I got a diner party invitation to one of her co-workers place in the next few weeks. We are not Fucking going!!
undeniably tense as fuck, Kusama works wonder on a tiny budget and also there's Lindsay Burdge, but this is the latest in a long line of kinda cheap / formally excellent domestic horror stories that feel content to be genre exercises, and deny themselves the opportunity to become more than that. it's a hell of a ride, but it's all surface... it's all putting the right beats in the right places... it works, but it might work too hard.
"... that was mercy"
the destructive, wavelike nature of grief as a communal experience that permeates every space we occupy, every movement we make & every interaction we have. kusama's formal grace is the obvious star here, the masterful staging, gestures & spatial awareness she shows off in particular, but as the film goes on & the screws tighten agonizingly slowly all the way until its haunting final image, kusama achieves something far beyond form -- her genre thrills deeply woven with a sense of the pervading, inescapable pain that, whether we're struggling to remember or forget, can blind us as easily as it brings us together.
So here's the thing.
Foreshadowing is a powerful storytelling tool if used correctly. It can give you a feeling of unease in a story that conveys a sense of normalcy. Without being able to put your finger on it, you get the sensation something is off, making you feel tense without knowing why.
The Invitation gets this. For about ten minutes. What remains is 60 minutes of foreshadowing with bits of story and character development in between. It lacks any and all subtlety. The main character literally keeps telling everyone something is wrong for two thirds of the film.
We get it. You're leading up to something.
I love slow burn thrillers. I love films that start out normal and…
88/100
A story of distance fed through the impenetrable barrier of grief. LA is seen as a glowing mirage within a hazy landscape, and the hills appear seductive, even flirtatious, in the face of looming modernity. It is where the damaged and the fearful, the deranged and the affected choose to reside, literal detachment encasing their unease. Karyn Kusama builds an entire universe - people as planets and spaces as mysterious areas of darkness and unknown conversations - so that the eventual horror unravels organically, all a singular puzzle although each piece is utterly fractured. And Will - played by a terrific Logan Marshall Green - is the audience surrogate, spinning around uncertain friends and foes in a woozy state,…
Hello, my dear and beloved letterboxd friends. Tomorrow I will be celebrating my 26th birthday! When I joined letterboxd, I was merely 22, still young and unexperienced, definitely not acquainted to the many issues of adulthood. Now, that I have seen, I have suffered, I have loved and I have lived, I feel nothing but enormous joy for sharing this space with you. Therefore, to celebrate life, love and joy, I extend a formal invitation to my birthday party, which will be celebrated on the evening of this Sunday at my secluded house on the hills. You are all invited and I hope to introduce you to some of my new friends I made in my last trip to Mexico.…
Mi madre: "No es mi estilo y tal, pero está bien conseguida. Se me hace lenta, pero vamos... sobre cinco... dos estrellas y medias"
Started very slow but picked up as it went. Specifically the last half hour which was great. And the ending is AWESOME.
Currently in the running for best movie of the '10s for me. What struck me on rewatch is Kusama's masterful use of space to enhance themes: the blocking of the actors subtly reinforces the feeling of claustrophobia; the understated moment when the camera pans up to reveal the second floor balcony, a moment of sublime foreshadowing; the way John Carroll Lynch hulks in the background. I'm also in awe of the way that character details perfectly dovetail with plot - trauma as an unending loop, both cause and effect in itself.
what the hell wrong with these people why would you go to anything your ex is hosting? that was your first mistake
Holy shhhhh this film is unsettling. Tension, suspicion, and questions for about 90% and then EVERYTHING HAPPENS. I'm not going to sleep well tonight.
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