The Uninvited (2025) Brilliant debut film from Nadia Conners
“You’re so angry, it’ll be the death of you”
Nadia Conners directorial debut film starts as it means to go on with a very real and definite template for the 97 minutes that follows. The film is edited frenetically (by Patrick Walsh and Todd Zelin) each and every character is introduced with a full if purposely cloudy backstory and a somewhat dry and discombobulating beginning is accompanied by a jaunty jazz infused soundtrack from Eric Avery. In short, there is a lavish party to prepare for high in the expensive hills of Hollywood hosted by an angry man in the throes of a mid-life crisis, a woman reflecting on the circle of her life writ large on the performance stage as her art now imitates her life, a life now thrown into chaos over the course of one night, one party, and an old flame meets a new adversary amid rising tensions, unwanted truths, broken dreams, a child’s bedtime story, a “witch”, a “ghost”, and an uninvited guest who stays until the end and who sees through them all.
Oh, and there’s a car in the driveway, constantly sounding its horn…
The opening 10 minutes of the film begins with frantic cuts: from the reflections of a swimming pool to the oasis of calm and a host of palm trees, to an ornate table and a beautiful old piano, before we quickly find ourselves deep within a sumptuous looking home in the Hollywood hills and now “Rose” (Elizabeth Reaser) talking to both herself and the reflection of the former actress now budding life coach and mother of one in her bedroom mirror. As Rose bemoans her aging looks, Eric Avery’s jazz soundtrack kicks into high gear for the first time in the film and similarly, another first, the sound of a car horn nearby and “There’s a Prius in the driveway” before another first of many in the film with Rose shouting loud exclamations and rhetorical questions for a husband not yet seen. With Rose in the middle of dressing herself for the coming party (another in a continuing series of firsts for the film), the quickly edited cuts of the film return as we dash from her bedroom to an overhead shot of the Hollywood hills and back to a terraced view of her home and now back inside her bedroom as she continues to dress and prepare frantically for the evening party. Batting away distant calls from her son to read him a story, Rose is now seen (in quickly edited bursts) preparing food in the kitchen before laying out a vast finger buffet in the garden, yet more loud, rhetorical questions for a still unseen husband, and there’s a car in their driveway, still repeatedly blaring its horn…
More frantic editing now as we follow Rose back into the kitchen before she barks a loud but friendly request for the family babysitter to help her son into the bath and as the world spins around her: a voicemail is left on her phone as she sits for the first of many aura photographs in a booth set up in her garden to record the evening and the party looming ever nearer on a night when so many lives will be changed, and perhaps changed forever. The voicemail is distressing news for Rose. She’s been passed over for a role in a coming play and for a role that mirrors her current life. The director considers Rose “unbelievable” and “tragic” for the role of a late in life mother of a young child, the news of which we hear as Rose ascends the staircase of her opulent Hollywood home and back into her bedroom to continue getting dressed ahead of the party to come, as “The Uninvited” is displayed in the centre of the screen.
“I matter. I don’t matter” Rose mumbles at the reflection in her bedroom mirror as she’s startled by husband “Sammy” (Walton Goggins) standing in the doorway to their bedroom. Another of the film’s firsts commences: that of the verbal jousts and play fights between husband and wife that pepper the film still to come. Here, and before the most important party of their Hollywood lives, their verbal fight is very playful, rising to sensual even, but not before each frets over their individual attire for the evening. Around and around they go, the circle of their lives swirls ahead of the party neither remains dressed or ready for as the frenetic cuts of the film returns with Sammy disappearing from the bedroom to take an important telephone call that ends before it begins as Rose, similar to her husband Sammy, remains half dressed and worrying for the night and party ahead. There are now yet more shouted if friendly requests for the babysitter to ensure her son goes for his bath, a son now watching Star Wars (much to his mother’s consternation) and a young son now seen for the first time “Wilder” (Roland Rubio) shouting and pleading with his father to join him while he takes his bath. But Sammy is far too busy and distracted as he waits for his important caller to ring back and despite remaining unseen, there’s that damn car in the driveway and the repeated honking of its horn…
We cut to another playful verbal fight between the hosts of the party but now, a real sense of tension between them cuts the air. Sammy may be dressed now but Rose remains only partially dressed as their playful fight turns at first sour as there’s an admittance to a third party, possibly a marriage guidance counselor, involved in their relationship, before Sammy now tries desperately to sweeten their conversation, turning it sexual even, before yet again, we hear the repetitive dirge and irritating return of a blaring car horn in the near distance. Exiting the house, we cut to Rose approaching the car and a befuddled older lady behind the wheel assuring Rose she’s “home” yet unable to gain access to the driveway as “my clicker won’t work”. As Sammy joins them at the roadside, panicking about the preparation for the party ahead, the as yet unnamed older lady continues “I have to get home. My husband is waiting for me”. Smiling, Rose introduces Sammy as her husband. “Sammy” the older lady intones, “That’s my husband’s name” before looking at Rose’s husband and asking “Are you my husband?” Awkward smiles are shared between Rose and Sammy as she suggests her husband drive the older lady home to which she receives short shrift in response from a clearly agitated Sammy worrying for the “dozens” of guests about to descend on their home for the most important Hollywood party of their lives. Not his party, Sammy is keen for everyone to be aware, but that of his client Gerald, but the somewhat one way conversation is now lost in Sammy’s anger at a passing motorist as he rushes back to the house to greet the first arriving guest, leaving Rose to care for the confused lady sitting at the entrance to their driveway.
We cut to Rose now sat beside the older lady in her car, looking for the lady’s missing mobile telephone. The still unnamed lady asks Rose’s name to which the older lady replies awkwardly and absent mindedly “I wanted to call my daughter Rose” before she disappears into a reverie for when she lived at this address, often sitting on the terrace as she waited for her husband to return from work. It was the “best part of my day” she laments. Following the arrival of “Delia” (Eva De Dominici) Rose now spots the second of their prized guests arriving for the party and rushes from the car to greet him. “Gerald” (Rufus Sewell) is quickly asked for his help in dealing with the older lady to which he scoffs, calling her a “ghost”, and enters the party, leaving Rose lost and all alone. We now cut to the older lady hobbling and struggling on her feet as she approaches the house and in desperate need of a toilet, rushing past Rose and into her home.
Their home?
Nadia Conners debut film is a dry, discombobulating and disconcerting tale of the interconnectedness and circle of many lives, the superficiality of which can be destroyed by just one glance, one chance encounter, the returning of a long lost stranger, a lost love, a “witch” even, or just over the course of a single night when the music stops, the lights go out, and the party is deemed over. “You are the love of my life” intones Sammy to a largely overlooked Rose (magnificent performances here from both Walton Goggins and Elizabeth Reaser) but Sammy is verging on an anger filled breakdown as he carries baggage from the past into a present life whereby he overly depends on his wife and yet largely ignores her. Rose is the heartbeat of the film, a thumping, never stopping pulsing beat of energy pushed and pulled in every direction but the party where she’ll shine, flitting from Sammy to her son Wilder, the babysitter, Gerald and finally another of her esteemed and valued party guests “Lucian” (Pedro Pascal) and all the while mindful of her most important guest of all, the uninvited ghost of an old lady who seems to have once lived in her home and has seemingly returned to grace this opulent mansion to Hollywood excess with her presence once again.
I reserve the right to leave the most accomplished performance to last and that of Lois Smith as the soon to be known “Helen”. Befuddled, confused, lost and a cruel victim of life’s uncertain future to Alzheimer’s, in Helen’s more lucid states of thinking she sees through every guest as well as the frantic hosts of a party we barely see as the interaction and connectivity between the past and present collide. Everyone comes under the spell of a witch who is anything but. An agent of chaos? A seer perhaps. The wisdom of an elder. The sharpest of wits. The cruel turn of fate of lives within lives, circles within circles? Lois Smith’s performance reminded me so much of June Squibb’s equally brilliant portrayal in Alexander Payne’s 2013 masterpiece Nebraska and my comment on Squibb’s performance then resonates and propels into the future a decade later — Squibb’s performance, and now Smith’s here, reminds me so much of my dear old mum, and there isn’t a higher compliment I can pay.
The Uninvited is dry and a little dizzying with the repeated use of quick, sharp edits but stick with it as the comedy arrives along with a whole heap of existential angst, anger, regret, guilt, love, joy and a realisation that the best of us are with us now, and always will be.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon