Directed By Mark Anthony Green

Starring – Ayo Edibiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis

The Plot – A young writer (Edebiri) is invited to the remote compound of a legendary pop star (Malkovich) who mysteriously disappeared thirty years ago. Surrounded by the star’s cult of sycophants and intoxicated journalists, she finds herself in the middle of his twisted plan.

Rated R for violent content including a grisly image, adult language, sexual material and brief graphic nudity.

Opus | Official Trailer HD | A24

POSITIVES

Beginning his career as a music journalist for a prestigious pop culture magazine, there’s plenty about “Opus” that feels personal for Mark Anthony Green, particularly his unapologetic commentary towards toxic fandom, celebrity and the state of journalism that surprisingly gives this movie a bit more depth than being just another derivative cult movie with little originality or elevation to its practice. This is a daring risk, as whenever the film focuses on the mindlessness that comes with these thematic inclusions, it easily comes across as comedically spoofing, but it’s something that I felt worked well with the awkwardness and spontaneity of its established tone, with Green refusing to take sides in the perils of an ever-dying industry that has many sides to blame, while diminishing this line of visibility between fandom and frenzy to feeling as thinly undetectable as ever, speaking volumes unsettling realities into existence in its reflection of current artists and their fans, whose accessibility has never been closer with the advantages of social media. On top of the intimate look into such a toxic industry, Green’s direction does a solid job of attaining a strangely unsettling form of atmosphere within this cult compound that not only utilizes unpredictability in the way that it gets rid of various characters, but also effectiveness in its editing practices to draw out some of those tensely uncomfortable interactions between morally established characters towards feeling inescapable. While I can never truly say that “Opus” scared me or even made me flinch in my seat, I can say that Green is a more than capable commanding hand at emitting out the kind of pivotal vulnerabilities and isolation factors within his characters that helps drive the intrigue factors of a movie, with everything from flying arrows to spontaneous poisoning making every action of the character feel ripe with the kind of consequences that keeps audience guards up continuously throughout the 98-minute duration. In addition to the prolonged editing and atmospheric uneasiness, the original songs here composed by Grammy winning artists The-Dream and Nile Rodgers for Malkovich’s pop star were surprisingly quite exceptional, with lyrical consciousness into the mind of a madman, as well as infectious instrumentals that really imposed their will on the protagonist characters forced to entertain them. As to where most movies about musicians rarely attain legitimacy among its original products, the three tracks here felt every bit enigmatic as they did unrestrictive to the lack of limitations from the established artist, and with Malkovich’s unchained bodily responses during performances, made them a perfect marriage of sight and sound to entertain me to no end. Speaking of performances, Edibiri and Malkovich escape this conflicted film unscathed, with each of their portrayals feeling so uniquely unorthodox to what we’ve expected in each of them to this point in their careers. To this point, Edibiri has skated by with charismatically charming characters that elicit a cool factor from the young actress, but here her emotional acting is put to the test, with the climax conjuring some truly challenging forms of expressions for her under some dire situations, all of which Ayo rises to the challenge as the eyes and ears of the audience who continuously defines the awkwardness of the unraveling events around her. As for Malkovich, he’s the real show-stealer who effortlessly elicits the privilege and pampering of this iconic pop star, with an equally gripping unpredictability factor for menace that makes him the distinguishable X-factor to any room that he walks into. Malkovich abides by the ages old sentiment of talking soft and carrying a big stick, as he never needs to shout to feel imposing, instead taking advantage of the privileges and outsider justification of celebrity in order to get people to do some truly uncomfortable things, all the while serving as the primary ingredient towards keeping this movie from feeling boring.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately “Opus” isn’t quite as compelling on an entertaining level as it is a therapeutic one for Green, as so much of this movie’s horror, characters and even conflicts feel undefined, making this a scare-less, thrill-less engagement that tests the constrictions of its run time with nothing in the way of originality or elevation to films like “Midsommar”, or “The Menu”, that did it first and better. The characters, especially Edibiri’s protagonist, are plagued by such clunky and heavy handed dialogue that not only makes them feel one-dimensional, but also downright stupid in dismissing such obvious and evidential evidence surrounding them of cult-like activity. Edibiri’s character is above this, but a complete lack of development in her backstory leaves her virtually incapable of audience investment, thus in turn creating a major hinderance to the stakes that so many of these cult movies flourish with. The horror is just as conflicting, considering there is so little of it, with only these spontaneous and obscuring kills that do nothing to reward the patience of an audience who are casually being put through the ringer of such inconsistent pacing. What I mean by this is a majority of the kills happen either off-screen or away from the depiction of the lens, and while I understand that the intended purpose of this is to leave the horror to the mind of its interpreters, it raises more questions about the execution of these devious feats, without anything in the way of carnage candy for its audiences to bask in the glow of believable practical effects for the occasion. As for the conflicts, they take a while to properly muster, but when they do they feel illogical and impractical for how one character is able to continuously escape the cult onslaught, made worse by a climax that wastes away some legitimate tension earned during the film’s single best scene of a children’s puppet show. Because the movie is down to twenty minutes by that point, it leaves Green having to rush through resolutions in ways that offered little time for us to savor their appeal, and the results are these flatly registered deaths and unsatisfying direction that trails off during the film’s most impacting moments, instead of producing the big bang necessary of leveling everyone and everything included. I previously mentioned the pacing feeling uneven between its halves, with the first half feeling slowly methodical in introducing us to this world that feels far from civilization, and the second half feeling breezily rushed through an abundance of scenes and developments, and it left me feeling tedious from an engagement that barely clocks in at over an hour-and-a-half, with some scenes requiring more length, while others needing omitted from the finished product all together. While I was never bored by the film, as previously indicated by Malkovich’s mesmerizing presence, I was undoubtedly exhausted by a film that garnered no shortage of potential, only to be continuously disappointed around every corner, and considering the allotment of talent assembled for such a meaningful ensemble, this is a film that isn’t good enough to contain a single one of them, especially those left in the dust of forgettability. For this unfortunate reality, Juliette Lewis, Amber Midthunder, and especially Murray Bartlett are tragically wasted in thankless roles not even good enough to be considered cameo, particularly in the lack of focus, development, and even dialogue given to their respective characters. While this is intentional with Midthunder, as her character is meant to be more of a stalking enforcer to Edibiri’s character, Lewis and Bartlett are entirely unforgiveable, with me frequently forgetting that they were even a part of this film, only to be surprised when they were brought back in focus. In fact, characterization is sacrificed so nonchalantly here that it makes me curious why any legitimate actor or actress would want to attach themself to the project, with nothing in the way of complexity or personality to their various opportunities.

OVERALL
“Opus” offers evocative social commentary in the industry of his creative origin for Mark Anthony Green, but little in the way of originality for entertainment or impactful horror that wastes away the limitless potential of strangely unsettling cults, which cinema never tires of. Despite energetically effective turns from Ayo Edibiri and John Malkovich, the entirety of the rest of the ensemble are apparently better to not be seen or heard, leading to a rushed and mostly unfulfilling climax that doesn’t reward the virtuous patience of its audience during a movie that is too weird even for A24’s standards.

My Grade: 5.5 or D