Even John Malkovich can’t save this tepid satire Opus
In Opus, the latest from cult studio A24, Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) stars as Ariel, a rookie music journalist who is mysteriously invited to a listening party for the new album by music icon Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich).
The flamboyant star has been I’m seclusion for 30 years, inviting Ariel and a group of journalists to his private compound. Soon, however, Ariel realises that something sinister is afoot.
A compelling concept is presented, promising an examination of celebrity culture and the way society makes people gods for simply entertaining them. However, none of that exploration comes to pass as we get a film that plays the more basic notes from similarly pitched stories like Get Out, Blink Twice, Triangle of Sadness and many others.
It’s funny in starts, but never hilarious. There are one or two moments that may make you jump, but it’s sinister more than scary. It’s hard to know what or who Moretti is supposed to be satirising, or what the assorted journalists represent. It is, ultimately, not much more than a bunch of weird things happening for the sake of it.
A dreary opening half hour hampers Ariel with close to no backstory. Yes, her great ideas are overlooked by her grating male boss (Murray Bartlett), but that conflict is somewhat undercut when a friend describes her as having no struggles in her life, and therefore no valid perspective. It’s not the best way to introduce the hero of the piece, and even Edebiri’s charisma can’t lift a lead the audience doesn’t know much about.
There is, thankfully, Malkovich. Taking his odd public persona and ramping it up to ridiculous levels, he’s a prancing, name-dropping lunatic who is a delight in every scene he’s in. Whether it’s enough to save a film with no direction is up to you, but as he dry humps the visitors to the tune of his new single he captures the pomposity of music legends in a way the script wishes it could.
Ending on a wishy-washy twist about modern culture, Opus is an A24 film that’s trying too hard to live up to the reputation of the cult studio. Despite the joys of a barking mad Malkovich, it all feels like a waste.