Ariel (Ayo Edibiri) can’t catch a break. A young music journalist with aspirations of writing something that matters, she finds that her best pitch ideas are taken by others or ignored. She longs to write a book, but as her friend Kent (Young Mazino) tells her over sushi, well…Ariel is “mid.” She comes from a good home, she isn’t wealthy or poor, she’s young, and basically he’s had none of the life experience or perspective that would give her opinion weight. Nobody cares what she thinks. By the end of Opus, Kent will be proven wrong, but the journey to get there is also “mid.”
Opus is the brainchild of writer/director Mark Anthony Green, a former GQ magazine journalist, and it shows. Ariel is like an avatar for Green as the film satirizes the relationship between entertainment journalists and the celebrities they orbit. John Malkovich plays Alfred Moretti, an Elton John-esque rock superstar who had a massive generation-spanning earworm with his anthemic track “Nina Simone”, then vanished from the spotlight. Thirty years later, Moretti has announced a new album that his publicist (Tony Hale) says is a musical masterpiece.
Ariel and a lucky few get surprise invitations to Moretti’s compound for a private album debut event. She’s joined by her pushy boss, Stan (Murray Bartlett), gossipy TV host Clara (Juliette Lewis), dogged paparazzi photog Bianca (Melissa Chambers), infamous podcast and Moretti archnemesis Bill (Mark Siverten), and influencer Emily (Stephanie Suganami). Things are off right from the start, as Moretti’s team all look and act like cult members, and take away the visitors’ cell phones so there’s no means of communication with the outside world. Furthermore, they all have a 24/7 attendant. Prey breakout Amber Midthunder plays Ariel’s attendant, shadowing her even when she goes on a long jog.
Promos for Opus would have you believe the film leans towards horror but nothing could be further from the truth. The first half plays most effectively as a celebrity satire, with Malkovich going wild as an unhinged Moretti. He’s clearly having an incredible time in such a nutty role, performing crazy New Wavy songs written by Nile Jones and The-Dream. Malkovich is nobody’s idea of a pop superstar so to watch him dancing around (he has this bizarre little hop step), grinding and thrusting his hips to the music is just priceless.
Even with Malkovich having a ball, Opus is never as funny as it should be. Edibiri does her best but I found her character, which is the best-developed outside of Malkovich, to be pretty flat and uninteresting. She’s the only one clever enough to see that Moretti’s followers are more than just fans, they’re dangerous. He’s built an entire cult of personality, his followers known as Levelists, and it’s all just very creepy and very weird.
When the horror elements come in, none of it is particularly scary or thrilling, and the funny satirical bits are left behind. The bloodshed and violence isn’t particularly well shot, and a chase scene involving Edibiri and Midthunder is very weak. But not as weak as the conclusion to Opus, which tries to set up a dynamic similar to Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling, but Moretti isn’t that smart or charismatic, and Ariel isn’t interesting enough for us to care that much. If marketed around Malkovich’s performance, A24 could still have a decent-sized hit on their hands, but Opus won’t leave anyone begging for more.
Opus will hit theaters on March 14th.
