The Invite is a comedy-drama starring Olivia Wilde (who also directed the film), Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, and Penélope Cruz. It is based on the 2020 Spanish film Sentimental, written and directed by Cesc Gay, and adapted from his own play Els veïns de dalt/Los vecinos de arriba (which translates to “The Upstairs Neighbors/The People Upstairs”). The plot follows Angela and Joe (Wilde and Rogen, respectively), a San Franciscan couple whose marriage is on thin ice. They invite their upstairs neighbors, Hawk and Piña (Norton and Cruz), to talk about the loud sex noises they are continually hearing from them. As the night goes on, discussions reveal secrets and discoveries from all four of the dinner guests.
While Angela shows some traces of bi-curiosity towards Piña, this entry will mostly focus on the latter. Piña is a middle-aged therapist and sexologist who wavers back and forth between being confident in herself and her bisexuality/poly identity and being angry and resentful about being middle-aged and subject to the dismissal (both societal and medical) that often accompanies that. She is whip-smart, self-possessed, kind, honors her boundaries and protects her partner, and insightful/incisive to the point of skewering her subjects with the precision of a marksman. She is also more than just her sexuality; she has a deep past and background, and her relationship is imperfect, showing cracks given by the language difference (Piña is Spanish) as Hawk patronizes her often by correcting her English even though his Spanish is horrible. She also often focuses on others and their flaws rather than being at peace with her place in her life. She also clearly has made an ethical misstep by dating Hawk, who was formerly her patient — not a typical “bad bi” stereotype, but also not exactly a good example.
Regarding her bisexuality and her polyamorous lifestyle, she is open and honest about it when questioned, and happy to be a bi woman as well as poly. A quick quote from when she discusses how her poly lifestyle began, as well as what she gets out of being in an open relationship:
I’ve always been bi-curious. For me, the pleasure I get from a woman is different … We [as a couple] practice compersion. And for me, there is nothing better than watching my partner in the hands of another.
While we wish she would claim a stronger term to label herself than “bi-curious” (considering she kisses Angela on the mouth as well as goes into deep detail about having sex with multiple partners of different genders often), this may also be part of her soft launch to the eventual invite towards Joe and Angela to have sex with them, as the label isn’t as definitive, so it may have been tactical to state it as such.
The Invite enjoyed success upon its release, recouping its budget and earning a “Certified Fresh” rating on the critic-and-audience aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, akin to universal acclaim. It also won two 2026 Astrea Midseason Movie Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Cruz) and Best Screenplay.
It is extremely unusual to have a confident bi poly character in any mainstream release — particularly a middle-aged woman with great depth such as Piña. For this reason (and many more), we believe The Invite is a bi film of particular note in modern cinema.