In the broadest strokes, it is fairly hilarious how a lot of Opus looks like a case of film déjà vu. If you’ve got been uncovered to the type of arty horror popularized by at this time’s largest impartial film studio and distributor, A24, you’ve got seen this sort of film many instances over: An eccentric determine lures unsuspecting friends (like in Heretic or Ex Machina) to a distant location the place issues aren’t as they appear (X, Men) revealing one thing in regards to the shallow nature of these current (Bodies Bodies Bodies, Midsommar). It could be honest to dismiss it for that diploma of recycling alone. More just isn’t all the time higher, and Opus doesn’t provide sufficient variation on its A24 predecessors to make issues really feel contemporary. What it does have is a singular perspective – a perspective that is enjoyable to consider, however extraordinarily slender.
Opus pretends to be about pop stars and celeb, organising a narrative during which the extraordinarily reclusive, wildly in style musician Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich) is about to launch his first album in 30 years. To mark the event, he invitations a choose few to his personal compound for a lavish weekend listening social gathering. No one is aware of why junior reporter Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri) is amongst them, and thru her eyes the viewer will get to be an outsider amongst insiders as Opus goes about not simply being a horror film however a satirical look of individuals accustomed to VIP remedy.
Because that is what Opus is definitely about: Not celeb, however the individuals who cowl it. First time writer-director Mark Anthony Green comes from the journal world, having labored at GQ for over a decade. (Full disclosure: I freelanced for GQ for a number of years, however by no means had any interplay with Green throughout that point or after.) He employs that have to place the viewer within the mindset of {a magazine} author, particularly, a marginalized one: Ariel has been on workers for 3 years however nonetheless will get neglected, and her concepts usually lead to assignments for different writers. Her boss, Stan (Murray Bartlett), tells her to stay to taking notes whereas he accompanies her to Moretti’s compound, and shuts down any likelihood of her writing her personal article.
There’s a superb quantity to chew on right here if you’re somebody predisposed to serious about journal journalism and the methods it interacts with celeb. Early on, Ariel outlines a profession plan that begins with interviewing attention-grabbing individuals in order that others will discover her attention-grabbing sufficient to interview, successfully giving freely the sport: A giant a part of doing Ariel’s type of journal writing is protecting your ego in verify sufficient to at the least seem as in case your aim isn’t to grow to be a narrative your self. Over the course of 104 minutes, she learns this lesson, which may make Opus really feel extra like shoptalk than a film. I discover what it has to say attention-grabbing as a result of I’m a journalist who’s written for magazines and thinks about them lots. The job, notably when it entails following celebrities round, can result in blurry strains between observing and collaborating; in addition to coming to grips with how elusive the reality may be when your topic is all the time performing, even when they’re attempting to persuade you they don’t seem to be. There’s good drama on this, but it surely’s additionally the type of inside baseball that may be profoundly alienating to anybody who is not already on this enterprise or excited by it.
Unfortunately for these individuals, all Opus has on the horror facet of the equation is a pile of cliché. It is not essentially a foul factor that it sticks to the type of well-worn system embraced by a lot of its labelmates, but it surely does imply that the way it executes on that system actually issues. But as an alternative of being spectacular, Opus is dutiful, dropping clues and our bodies at a gentle tempo just like the twisted Willy Wonka expertise it’s – simply with out a lot bizarre stuff to take a look at, as a result of Moretti’s compound is in the midst of the desert and largely consists of tents and luxe bungalows. The kills, with one notable exception, are mundane or obscured. (Perhaps essentially the most A24-style trick of all is a scene the place a door shuts on a violent battle, with solely the sounds of the scuffle to clue us in on who will get the higher hand.) A weird puppet present within the closing act hints on the type of memorable weirdness that might’ve gone a good distance if there have been extra of it in Opus.
For what it is value, the film’s gestures towards a thriller constructed across the mania over a musical idol (assume Smile 2 or Trap) are a ton of enjoyable: John Malkovich just isn’t the type of particular person you’d count on to play a pop icon with a cult following, and his portrayal of Alfred Moretti (additionally not a really pop star title) is a superb mixture of goofy and sinister. His music, after we’re given a style, is a wierd mixture of David Bowie-style anthems and dance-pop struts, and there are moments when it looks like Opus is designed to make the viewer really feel alienated. Like you are not supposed to be into Moretti’s music, and also you’re speculated to be a bit uncomfortable that each character right here is. Are they sucking up? Or does fame all the time finally produce a cult?
The moments that convey up questions like this are Opus’ strongest, however they’re transient and few, and so they do not distinction strongly sufficient with the simply parodied A24 model of horror. In the top, Opus does perform a little greater than merely play the hits, but it surely’s not fairly daring sufficient to maintain the report spinning.
