‘Opus’ Trailer: John Malkovich Plays Jared Leto Playing Jared Leto

Jan 21

From Ryan Cordaro

There’s a certain subgenre of movies that’s been booming recently, but I haven’t exactly been able to figure out a good name for it. If anything, it’s entirely based off of the movie The Menu, where a bunch of people go to an isolated place where weird things happen. It’s admittedly a fun movie, but to me, it always feels like it’s the smartest thing on the planet. That’s usually never a problem to me, but it’s usually just fun to see actors like Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy just eat up all of that dialogue. I can’t admit to remembering a bunch about it, though, so maybe that says something about the staying power of that movie. Funny enough, I can’t even think of another comparison outside of this new movie, Opus.

Opus follows a young writer who’s invited to the remote compound of a legendary pop star who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago. While she’s surrounded by the star’s cult of sycophants and intoxicated journalists, his plans for her slowly become revealed. Seeing Ayo Edebiri in the lead role is very exciting for me. She’s been great in everything I’ve seen her in, and I can’t wait to see her potentially be a horror final girl. John Malkovich is also a great pick for a cultish pop star, basically playing Jared Leto. That’s how I see it, at least, since he’s technically a singer and is the actual leader of a cult. I hope it leans into that, specifically making fun of Leto and his very weird antics. If Malkovich does anything like give someone a live rat, that alone would be worth the ticket.

Opus stars Ayo Edebiri (The Bear, Inside Out 2), John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire, the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps), Rosario Dawson (Rent, Ahsoka), Juliette Lewis (Yellowjackets, Natural Born Killers), Murray Bartlett (The Last of Us, The White Lotus), Amber Midthunder (Prey, the upcoming Novocaine), Tatanka Means (Killers of the Flower Moon, Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1), Young Mazino (Beef, the upcoming The Last of Us: Season 2), Stephanie Suganami (Doctor Odyssey, Power Book II: Ghost), and Tony Hale (Arrested Development, VEEP).