(****)
Guess who’s coming to dinner? Now guess again.
It seemed like it would be such an ordinary occasion. She invited the couple in the upstairs apartment downstairs for dinner. He says he was unaware of the arrangement. She’s hoping civility reigns over the evening. He’s still pissed that the couple makes so much noise at night that they can’t sleep. He’s so hostile there could be a fight before hors d’oeuvres are served.
The couple-on-couple stress harkens back to the OG angry adult quartet play/movie Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? That explosive 1966 drama featured Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis, and all four stars received acting Oscar® noms, with Taylor and Dennis winning. This dinner party is of that caliber, bound to be a critic’s darling, but has a different origin story.
This twisted dramedy goes back to the 2016 play Los Vecinos De Arriba, written by Cesc Gay. Gay adapted his theater piece into the 2021 Spanish film Sentimental (aka The People Upstairs). It was nominated for a host of Spain’s Goya Awards, which attest to the story’s pedigree. That kernel of creativity sparked the interest of screenwriters Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, who previously co-wrote the rom/com Celeste and Jesse Forever, though Jones is best known as a leading actress on TV’s Parks and Recreation. They Americanized the story’s setting, language and culture. Olivia Wilde, an actress (Babylon) and filmmaker (Don’t Worry Darling), stepped in as director and lead actress and most adult audiences will be delighted with the debauchery the three conceived.
In modern day San Francisco, Joe (Seth Rogen, Pineapple Express) is a bit of a curmudgeon. A dark cloud hovers over him as he huffs and puffs up S.F. hills on his mini bike. He’s rarely in a good mood and the night he comes home to his beleaguered wife Angela (Wilde) and finds out the upstairs neighbors are coming to dinner, he’s rankled all the more. Nothing she can do soothes her savage beast. Especially before the guests arrive. His grumpiness is the bane of their rocky marriage. Before they can finish their current argument, the doorbell rings. Oops!
In walks the platinum Spanish blonde Piña (Penélope Cruz) and her partner Hawk (Edward Norton). They’re as freewheeling, casual and positive as Joe and Angela are pent-up, uptight, brittle and negative. After exchanging pleasantries, the conversation becomes alarmingly candid as they examine each other’s relationships. Says one, “You keep blaming each other for your unhappiness.” Discussions about sex, swinging, noise and unwinding seem like they will put the couples on a collision course. Until they don’t. Until things head in unexpected directions that lead to the airing of hidden desires, revelations and brutal honesty. It all builds to, well, a climax.
The screenplay, especially the electric dialogue, is so juicy it gives this quartet of ultra-talented actors a playground many in their profession would envy. All are up for the challenge. Rogen plays the ultimate kvetch—the guy you hope never ends up sitting next to you at a dinner party but always does. He’s oblivious and not ashamed of what he says, to others’ chagrin. Wilde’s interpretation of the nettled wife at her wits’ end clearly shows how frustrated the spouse is with her husband, responsibilities and their shipwrecked marriage. Their harried performances establish Joe and Angela as a couple drowning in a sea of frustration and desperately in need of rescuing.
The matter-of-fact way that Norton and Cruz as Hawk and Piña discuss their sex life is shocking. Shocking in the most refreshing way. Especially compared to their reticent hosts. Some of the differences between the Spanish version of this tale and this adaptation are as basic as the kind of sex acts discussed. Some viewers, those who aren’t up on modern sex terms, may need to take an OnlyFans 101 course to keep up. The outrageousness is hysterical as you see Joe’s eyes open so wide his eyeballs might shoot across the room. And if that happened, Hawk and Piña should duck, because they’re the ones rattling Joe’s cage.
Capturing the naughty language, simmering desires and sudden outbursts isn’t an easy task. Yet Wilde, as the director and referee, brings as much attention to detail and dynamics as Mike Nichols did with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She maintains a consistent tone while keeping emotions raw. Despite having only a few sets, she gets cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra (The Last Black Man in San Francisco) to find every possible angle and maximize visual impact. Newport-Berra does particularly well with the few exterior shots of San Francisco. In just a few frames, audiences instantly understand the setting, era and mood.
Joe and Angela have the kind of San Francisco apartment renters and buyers covet because production designer Jade Healy (The Green Knight), set decorator Adam Willis (Marty Supreme) and art director Sandra Doyle Carmola (Ad Astra) know how to spruce up an inviting Bay Area home. If Martha Stewart was arranging a tryst with Snoop Dogg, this is the way she’d decorate their love nest.
In the wrong hands, this drama, as tantalizing as it is, could be a tough 107-minute sitting. But due to the titillating situations, which will leave adult audiences first aghast and then aroused, the minutes go by quickly. Credit editors Anthony Boys (Veep) and Yorgos Mavropsaridis (The Favourite) for masterfully clipping away the fat and leaving the lean. Composer Devonté Hynes (Queen & Slim) adds a jazzy score that enriches every scene. It’s a heady, erotic mix of white-hot dialogue, visual pleasures and evocative music. Watching the film feels like peeking through an open apartment window, witnessing two couples’ strange encounter and wondering if they’ll ever take their clothes off.
Where will this all go? Who’ll be left standing? Who’ll be left lying down? One of the four believes there’s hope: “Sometimes you can have a new relationship with the same person.” This unpredictable evening will keep adult audiences riveted to their seats, like it was a Tony Award-winning play. Often because its stage origins show, but so what? The emotions and eroticism that steam up the windows in this San Francisco abode will do the same to any home where this film is streamed.
It’s like you’re the extra guest who’s coming to dinner, unannounced, and you’re ready for anything, too.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ19I9q_hOQ
Visit Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.