For the Culture
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Adult Comedy Isn't Dead
Dear {{first_name | Reader}},
This week I've got a movie you need to see (The Invite), a conversation about the Love Island bromance, a trip to the Academy Museum to hang with an Oscar winner and a hot take on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding. (Don't hate me.)
Also, keep an eye out tomorrow, because I just might have a chat with Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon about their new Netflix series The Hawk. (Follow me for the latest.)
Let's get into it.
H. Alan Scott is Newsweek’s Senior Editor for Entertainment, host of the celebrity interview podcast ‘The Parting Shot’, and author of the entertainment newsletter For The Culture. Follow H. Alan Scott on Twitter and Instagram at @HAlanScott.
With The Invite, Olivia Wilde Proves the Adult Comedy Isn't Dead
Every so often a film gives us permission to talk about something we've been dancing around. This week, that film is The Invite, Olivia Wilde's new comedy about swinging San Francisco couples over one epic dinner party.
Wilde stars as Angela, a housewife whose marriage to Seth Rogen's Joe gets a jolt when the neighbors, played by Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz, extend an invitation that's decidedly not about book club.
What could have been a raunchy farce is instead something rarer: a smart, funny and genuinely moving look at open marriage, a subject everyone seems to be discussing except Hollywood.
With a sharp script from Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, Wilde plants herself firmly in auteur territory, and Cruz gives a performance that should have Oscar voters paying attention.
It's the kind of original adult comedy studios barely make anymore, and it might just change the conversation in your own car ride home. Consider this your invitation. Read my full piece on why The Invite matters right now.
Video Spotlight
Love Island's Zach and Bryce, Summer House's Emmy Moment and 20 Years of Housewives
Grab a martini glass—reality TV is having a moment and Gibson Johns is here to break it all down!
The Academy Museum is L.A.'s Best Film School
One of the great perks of living in LA: on any given weekend, you can walk into the Academy Museum and watch an Oscar winner teach a masterclass.
A few weekends ago that was Guillermo del Toro, who presented his favorite Hitchcock films and broke down why they matter, from the "logic of a dream" in North by Northwest's crop duster sequence to Hitchcock racing the daylight ("The sun doesn't care if you're Orson Welles or Ed Wood").
The best part? It's proper film education, not just a fan event. As del Toro put it: "We need to learn to read cinema like this."
The Register
LOVE STORY, CAUTIONARY TALE | Not to cast a dark cloud over Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's marriage, but maybe having Adam Sandler officiate wasn't ideal. Celebrity officiants have a spotty record: Kim Kardashian, Jimmy Kimmel and Little Richard all presided over weddings that ended in divorce. But celebrities marrying athletes always works out. Just ask... actually, don't.
TWO DECADES OF DRAMA | With a new season of Bravo's Real Housewives of Orange County upon us, we've hit a milestone: 20 years of Housewives. Bravo has launched new cities with success, but so much of the franchise runs on nostalgia for the OG. How much longer before it becomes Real Housewives of the Retirement Community?
FIN FRENZY | Has Discovery's Shark Week marketing gone too far? Warming oceans are changing shark migration patterns, forcing beachgoers from Australia to Rockaway Beach out of the water. Want to beat the heat? Staying inside to watch young Hollywood faves get stalked in Thailand in The Devil's Mouth (Prime Video, July 29) might be safer.
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