C+ | Old friends reunite at the home of an estranged member of their group, who may or may not have ulterior motives. Directed by Karyn Kusama Starring Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard, and Michiel Huisman Initial Review by Lane Davis |
“The Invitation” is a slow simmering pot of a film that rewards the patience of those that stay to watch it boil over. It’s a film that relies on mood, shadow, and atmosphere; sticking with it may be hard, because like any terrible party, you might want to find an excuse to leave. I resisted the urge to break the watching of the film up into two or more segments and I’m glad I did. Once the final port was poured, the uncomfortable dysfunction of the first hour and twenty minutes finally erupted into the chaos you knew had been brewing at the molecular level. Suspicions are confirmed and the viewer finds a perverse satisfaction in finally being able to say, “I knew that was going to happen!”
The less you know about the film going in, the better, but even without spoilers the story is a familiar one. The basic premise is this: Will and his new girlfriend get an invitation to a party, hosted by Will’s ex-wife and new boyfriend, that ends up being a recruitment dinner for a cult. I’ll stop there because five minutes into the film (and a little coyote murdering scene to do some helpful foreshadowing for us) and anyone who’s familiar with the term “Helter Skelter” can guess where things are going.
The film has its rough edges, for sure. While I personally enjoy slowly plotted films that take a while to develop, I could have probably found ten minutes of Will (well played by a ruggedly brooding Logan Marshall-Green) staring off into the woods/hills/dark/pool to shave off the run time without any adverse effects on the film’s tension. I also found the flashback scenes of Will and Eden’s dead son to be a little too sentimentally convenient and the resulting mixed emotions of grief and anger to be a bit overwrought for reality. Of course, maybe that’s just how people who live in Hollywood act. Who am I to judge?
The film was shot on a shoestring, which tends to eventually show up somewhere. For “The Invitation,” the corner cutting was evident here and there; especially in the early scenes of awkward socialization, I could almost hear the director’s voice saying: “Okay, act weird…good, fine…okay, we’re on a budget so do it quicker…annnddd....cut!” I wish the actors had been given a little more breathing room in those scenes, though Michiel Huisman and John Carroll Lynch make the most of what they were given.
It’s the director, Karyn Kusama that makes the film work—she’s incredibly restrained with the camera and the narrative, and it’s the little twist at the end that ties everything up in a neat, little murderous bow and that left me satisfied with the time spent in the weird world of Los Angeles dinner parties. I hope others found it as unsettlingly enjoyable as I did.
Grade: B+
The film has its rough edges, for sure. While I personally enjoy slowly plotted films that take a while to develop, I could have probably found ten minutes of Will (well played by a ruggedly brooding Logan Marshall-Green) staring off into the woods/hills/dark/pool to shave off the run time without any adverse effects on the film’s tension. I also found the flashback scenes of Will and Eden’s dead son to be a little too sentimentally convenient and the resulting mixed emotions of grief and anger to be a bit overwrought for reality. Of course, maybe that’s just how people who live in Hollywood act. Who am I to judge?
The film was shot on a shoestring, which tends to eventually show up somewhere. For “The Invitation,” the corner cutting was evident here and there; especially in the early scenes of awkward socialization, I could almost hear the director’s voice saying: “Okay, act weird…good, fine…okay, we’re on a budget so do it quicker…annnddd....cut!” I wish the actors had been given a little more breathing room in those scenes, though Michiel Huisman and John Carroll Lynch make the most of what they were given.
It’s the director, Karyn Kusama that makes the film work—she’s incredibly restrained with the camera and the narrative, and it’s the little twist at the end that ties everything up in a neat, little murderous bow and that left me satisfied with the time spent in the weird world of Los Angeles dinner parties. I hope others found it as unsettlingly enjoyable as I did.
Grade: B+
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