The funniest film of 2026 is available to watch right now

Starring Seth Rogen, it's also one of the best movies of the year so far.

An English-language remake of the 2020 Spanish hit The People Upstairs, the movie was made by director Olivia Wilde (Booksmart, Don't Worry Darling) from a script penned by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack (Celeste and Jesse Forever).

The story begins with the curmudgeonly music teacher Joe (Seth Rogen) arriving home from work to the apartment he shares with his stay-at-home wife, Angela (Wilde, also starring).

Struggling with back pain and hoping for a quiet night in, he is blindsided by Angela's announcement that their upstairs neighbours - a cheerful couple named Hawk and Pína (Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz), whom she is desperate to befriend - will be coming over in a few minutes for a dinner party.

This leads to a fight breaking out between Angela and Joe, an argument that Hawk and Pína walk slap-bang into.

The rest of the movie plays out nearly entirely in real-time at the dinner party. This is as Angela tries to mask her and Joe's relationship difficulties from their new neighbours, who have their own motives for attending the dinner party.

The Invite may have a simple set-up, but it wrings maximum entertainment and laughs from its premise.

Jones and McCormack's screenplay, brimming with clever one-liners, presents four very distinct yet recognisable characters, each with their own unique wants and motives, and has great fun setting them on each other and watching the sparks fly.

At the same time, Wilde's direction - which traps Angela, Hawk, Joe, and Pína together in the apartment, emphasising and lingering on moments of profound awkwardness - only adds to the humour.

It's a delight to witness Rogen's short-tempered everyman and Wilde's high-strung and unconfident Angela go toe-to-toe with Norton's calm and wise Hawk and Cruz's effortlessly self-confident and vibrant Pína.

Yet, there's ultimately more to The Invite's classic comedy of manners and social embarrassment than at first meets the eye.

Kicking off with Oscar Wilde's witty quote: "One should always be in love. That's the reason one should never marry," the movie probes through a modern lens big universal questions about love, relationships, desire, and passion. In particular, it's interested in how these things can evolve or change over time amidst the routines and struggles of life.

While we imagine there will be some debate about the film's tonal shift as it nears its end, we found it to be, for the most part, well-judged and subtly set up across the story's breezy and light-feeling 107 minutes.

As The Invite lands in Irish cinemas on the same weekend as the massively hyped Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (which we're very excited to check out), it's great to see the comedy genre make a comeback.

The Invite is in Irish cinemas now.