‘Opus’ Movie Review: Fandom Satire Is Familiar But Strange And Darkly Funny Enough To Make A Mark
Photo from A24
From Jeremy Kibler
Celebrity fandom is a whole religion in Opus, a strange, enticing horror film that doesn’t start as one. There’s no question that it’s familiar to the setups in Midsommar, The Menu and, most recently, Blink Twice. Once the viewer accepts those comparisons, writer-director Mark Anthony Green contrasts his own film, hitting his satirical targets, building dread, and bringing entirely different ideas to convey—not to mention a perfectly chosen ensemble—for his feature directorial debut. Maybe celebrities aren’t just like us?
Ayo Edebiri (Bottoms, The Bear) makes for a naturally funny, down-to-earth anchor as Ariel, a music magazine journalist waiting for more experience to find her own perspective. That chance finally comes after three years when she, along with boss Stan (Murray Bartlett), gets invited for a weekend to the remote Utah compound of Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich), a pop music legend who’s debuting his greatest album after a thirty-year hiatus. The weekend is only for a select group, also including a talk-show host (Juliette Lewis), an influencer (Stephanie Suganami), a paparazzi (Melissa Chambers), and a critic (Mark Sivertsen), but they’re also accompanied by hundreds of Moretti’s followers. The guests’ phones and laptops are confiscated for the weekend. Each of them gets a very loyal concierge (forget about going for a morning jog alone or leaving your “lady garden” less than tidy). Then people start missing. Is this well-populated ranch a cult?
Not unlike the aforementioned films, Opus draws you in right alongside this group of strangers. We already know something is amiss about Moretti and his staff from the very beginning. The accommodations are all too good to be true and more than a little unusual, but at least Ariel is suspicious right away and more than a little curious, too. Besides Ariel, everyone else is cannon fodder—the great Juliette Lewis seems very underutilized—but the story is seen through Ariel’s eyes. Edebiri is hard not to root for, particularly when Ariel’s editor relegates her to just taking notes and goes against her pitch of writing a secondary piece.
John Malkovich is engaging and commanding as Moretti, a flamboyant blend of David Bowie and Elton John, dubbed the “Wizard of Wiggle.” Both the script and Malkovich create the convincing notion that Moretti exists as this pop legend, to the point that three songs were written for the film by Grammy-winning artist Nile Rodgers and The-Dream. There’s even a dance number of sorts during Moretti’s listening party that’s so surreal it’s difficult to put into words. Of Moretti’s staff, a silent but deadly Amber Midthunder (Prey) and a magnetic Tamera Tomakili make the most impression.
With precise pacing and a savvy way with actors, Mark Anthony Green (a former GQ columnist) knows exactly how to weave an unsettling air of unease before going more for the throat. He and cinematographer Tommy Maddox-Upshaw also showcase some dynamic camerawork, particularly in eerie aerial shots that establish the distance from Moretti’s property with human civilization. After a full hour of menacing, darkly funny, not-quite-right details and then a rightfully sinister and thrilling climax, it all goes out with a bit of a whimper, concluding with an “Okay, and?” What it was all for might be a tad more muddled than it should have been, but the implications of the very last shot are sneakily thoughtful in its questions regarding celebrity worship and journalistic integrity.
On the most basic level, Opus lives in the shadows of other films involving cultish gatherings, but it remains a disconcerting nightmare that comes with fashioning, a children’s puppet show, oyster shucking, and pubic trimming. That’s an exciting place to be for a first-time filmmaker.
Rating: 3.5/5
Opus is currently in theaters.
