Reviews

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  ★★★★ review by josh lewis on Letterboxd

  "... 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.

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  ★★★★½ review by SilentDawn on Letterboxd

  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, forever lost to the past and its lingering power. All of the dynamics between the players are immediate - an disorganized group of personalities which never rise to Will's level of paranoia - but intended by design, especially as the formal elements shift from graceful movements to disconcerting shakiness. Even the "twisty" story is hardly a revelation, but Kusama subverts typical genre outcomes with grade-A elegance and eventual hostility. Up there with The Thing, Clue, and the thrillers of Jaume Collet-Serra in terms of evoking environment and bodies in separate spaces, with interior collisions and confrontations being just as evil as the intricacies of human nature.

  John Carroll Lynch is one of the greats, btw.

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  ★★★★ review by jose on Letterboxd

  this is why I don’t have friends nor go to dinner parties

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  ★★★★ review by Daniel Rodriguez on Letterboxd

  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. It is going to be a truly delightful night and truly I hope you all like wine! =)

  Now, to the actual review...

  After It Follows, I didn't expect seeing anything truly great for some time. Then I got The Witch right there on my face. I definitely didn't make the same mistake of questioning the quality of the movies coming out after The Witch though, which was a wise decision. Less than a month after Thomasin's Adventure with a Goat, we had Baskin and now, The Invitation. What a great movie this is!

  Karyn Kusama completely nailed the perfect mood and tone for it right in the beginning, after a small car accident scene, involving some roadkill. There is an unsettling realism constructed through believable performances and sharp dialogue. There isn't a single moment that The Invitation doesn't convey emotion. The director plays with the viewer's expectations in a fantastic manner, to a point it is hard to guess what will happen next, even when there is just a conversation going on.

  Logan Marshall-Green, AKA Tom Hardy Junior, gives my favorite male performance of 2016 so far. His character is so layered he doesn't cease to amaze. He ranges from angry and paranoid to sad and cynical, and it is outstanding. The conversations are a constant in this movie, so having great performances and writing were the quintessential part of The Invitation's success.

  Go watch this right now!

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  ★★★★½ review by Leticia Fernandes on Letterboxd

  But Why Did They Go To His Ex's Dinney Party In The First Place

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