Film Reviews: Love Stories at the Cinema Include “The Invite,” About Two Couples Challenging Relationship Norms; “Leviticus,” a Gay, Australian Horror Film; “Girls Like Girls,” a Lesbian Coming-of-Age Drama and “Voicemails for Isabelle,” a Better-Than-Usual Netflix Romcom

The Invite (c) A24

Film: The Invite 
In Cinemas 

Director/Actor Olivia Wilde’s follow-up to her misguided Don’t Worry, Darling is the much more successful The Invite, the buzzy Sundance hit about two couples who barely know each other but have preconceptions. Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde) are a long-married couple with a young daughter, living in Joe’s parents’ San Francisco apartment that he grew up in and never left. Joe is surprised one night when Angela announces she has invited their new upstairs neighbors for dinner, a couple whose loud sex in the middle of the night has bothered Joe since they moved in. Angela just wants to make new friends and finds them fascinating. They are Pína (Penélope Cruz), a therapist, and her boyfriend Hawk (Edward Norton), a retired firefighter, and their love affair feels fresh and exciting. Between Joe’s need to confront them about their noise and Angela’s need to please, Will McCormack and Rashida Jones’ script is funny, clever and occasionally cringy, especially when the neighbors explain the secret to their relationship, and their own invite to Joe and Angela. I was surprised how much this film worked, when other claustrophobic small-cast films, like Carnage, have failed. Rogan gets a lot of the funny lines as he is the audience’s stand-in as the film starts to head into more awkward situations. Wilde and Norton both have fine moments, including Hawk’s monologue as to how he got his name, but the most impressive performance is from Cruz, whose Pína always seems to be in control of the evening’s agenda. The ending feels a little rushed, otherwise The Invite is the kind of smart, American adult comedy we don’t get in multiplexes anymore. 

Off-Broadway Reviews: Some Pride Month Theater to Consider Include a Parody of the Gay Hockey Series, “Heated Rivalry;” the Sex-Lives of Sexagenarian, “Jerome” and the All-Black Cast of “La Cage aux Folles,” While “Romeo & Juliet” in Central Park, by Cualquier Otro Nombre, Is Worth Catching

Heated Rivalry (c) Matthew Murphy

Theater: Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody
At Culture Club 

When it was announced that there was already an unauthorized musical written of Hidden Rivalry not long after the last episode aired, hopes weren’t high that it wouldn’t be just a quick cash grab on the popularity of the TV series about closeted gay hockey players. But credit writer Dylan MarcAurele for actually writing a smart and funny take on the show, which doesn’t make fun of the material as it does celebrate the silliness of the fandom of gay men, straight women and, yes, even the curious straight sports fan. With a cast of five and practical but super creative direction by Alan Kliffer, most of the series’ highlights are represented in this Unauthorized Musical Parody, although the show’s copious amount of sex scenes have been reduced to just enough to not be shut down by the city. Jay Armstrong Johnson is convincingly pouty and alpha male as the Russian Ilya Rozanov, but the show’s real stand-out is Jimin Moon as the Canadian Shane Hollander—goofy, naïve and terminally the good boy. Their first real meeting in the hotel gym is hysterically sweaty and lusty. The rest of the characters are ably played with quick-change precision, without missing a laugh. Ryan Duncan’s major role is Kip, one half of the show’s other gay couple, and while that storyline does get the brunt of the musical’s plot cut, there is a fun scene surrounding Kip and his closeted hockey player (who plays Scott Hunter is a surprise I won’t spoil here). I saw the extremely talented understudy Shelby Acosta playing most of the major female characters, including Shane’s incredibly judgy mom; Maria, Kip’s co-worker (“Gurl!”), as well as the always exotic Svetlana. The hysterical Ryann Redmond’s main role is Susan, and if you’re wondering who Susan was in the tv show, she wasn’t. She’s the musical’s (very) Canadian narrator and stand-in for the many straight women in the audience who read and made Rachel Reed’s novels the hit that they are. Redmond captured the spirit of all the Susans out there. And thanks to the stellar work of the entire cast and director Kliffer, Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody is the perfect gay pride night out. 

Film Reviews: Is “Stop! That! Train!” as Stoopid as It Looks? (Fabulously So); Who Will Win the “Power Ballad” Battle Between Musicians Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas?, and Is Box Office Phenomenon “Backrooms” Worth It if You’re not a Horror Fan?

Stop! That! Train! (c) Bleecker Street 

Film: Stop! That! Train! 
In Cinemas 

Just as small-minded politicians seem to think painting over rainbow crosswalks and banning rainbow flags are the most pressing political issues of the day, comes the one film that will unite the country in patriotism and reach across the aisle for bi-partisan pride. Not! Director Adam Shankman’s Stop! That! Train! is the railway equivalent to Airplane! upping the exclamation point quotient by two and ramping the gay perspective to 11 (don’t worry straights, you’ll get enough of the references to get by). Impeccably cast by Brett Greenstein and Collin Daniel from the Fire Island chapter of SAG-AFTRA, the film is the spiritual sequel to Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar with the innocent charm of Dee Dee (Ginger Minj) and Tess (Jujubee) as two best friends with high aspirational dreams of being glamorous train attendants—the throughline that makes the film more than just mile-a-minute visual gags. If you’re a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race, you get the level of the humor here, with Ru herself having a supporting role as the clueless but always happy President (thankfully, she did seem to have reversed all the structural changes of the White House of the current administration). The film’s disaster plot of a once-in-a-lifetime monster storm in the path of the Glamazonian Express train seems secondary (why can’t they just stop! that! train! again?) with the gay sensibilities making the scattershot jokes a pleasure to sit through (with the sassy train attendants, played with scathing bitchiness by Brooke Lynn Hytes, Symone and Marty Lauter, giving perfect reads). There are also many celebrity ally cameos with unequal success: June Diane Raphael and Charo being the most successful while Sarah Michelle Geller and Missi Pyle miss the mark. Just in time for Gay Pride month, this film should be enjoyed with a crowd, because once it hits streaming, altered viewing parties will be the popular way to enjoy it from there on. 

The Interested Bystander’s 2026 Theater Awards Round-up

 

Schmigadoon! (c) Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman 

The 79th Tony Award Nominations 

Play 

Liberation by Bess Wohl 

Play (Revival) 

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman 

The Final 79th Tony Award Predictions

Death of a Salesman (c) Emilio Madrid

The 79th Tony Awards will be handed out this Sunday, June 7, with P!nk hosting.  These are my odds of who I think will win. 

Enjoy.