Kusama’s latest effort, The Invitation, is a return to form even if it’s very different from her earlier films. Surprisingly, it’s also written by Aeon Flux writers Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay. It starts innocently enough as we watch Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his wife Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) driving to a dinner party being thrown by his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard) and her new husband David (Michiel Huisman), whom they haven’t seen in years. As they discuss this fact, their car hits a coyote and Will is forced to put it out of its misery, an event that won’t seem to have much significance until much later. Once they get to Will’s former house, they’re greeted by a group of old friends with all sorts of pleasantries, and it all seems fairly innocuous other than the absence of a missing boyfriend named Choi. Eden is certainly acting upbeat, living some sort of hippy-dippy lifestyle, but there’s also a dark undercurrent to her personality that keeps bubbling near the surface for Will, reminding him of the turbulent end to their marriage. The Invitation is first and foremost a character piece, and Kusama has assembled an interesting group of actors that can pull off the dialogue-heavy material. The ensemble is spearheaded by Marshall-Green as Will, whose paranoia builds even as he reflects back on happier times with Eden before whatever happened that broke them apart. Emayatzy Corinealdi’s role as Will’s current wife is played down somewhat in favor of others like Lindsay Burdge, who was quite amazing in Hannah Fiddell’s films. further reading: The Best Modern Horror Movies In this, Burdge plays a sexy houseguest named Sadie, who is as much a mystery as the others, while Michelle Krusiek’s Gina (the one with the missing boyfriend) is also quite fun as the friend with the least inhibitions. Blanchard seems to be channeling Liv Tyler in her role as Eden, and then there is John Carroll Lynch. Few actors are as good as Lynch at coming off so creepy and imposing without saying a word. The movie is very much a slow burn, leaving you wondering where it’s all leading. Because of this, itsometimes gets into the danger of being buried by its own pacing because things don’t really start to intensify until the last 30 minutes when it begins delivering some true shocks. Kusama uses the score and sound design effectively to set up a menacing tone even when two people are merely talking, but overall, the film pales in comparison to similar reunion comedies (like Clea Duvall’s The Intervention) and never gets quite as intense or exciting as Jeremy Saulnier’s thriller Green Room (out next week). Other than that, it’s hard to fully fault the rest of the film because it’s filled with such fantastic, original concepts and solid performances that it does nevertheless leave a lasting impression. The Invitation opens in select cities on Friday, April 8.
