{"id":1632,"date":"2025-03-14T20:48:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T20:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/14\/opus-pop-star-cult-of-personality-thriller-never-finds-its-groove\/"},"modified":"2025-03-14T20:48:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T20:48:56","slug":"opus-pop-star-cult-of-personality-thriller-never-finds-its-groove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/14\/opus-pop-star-cult-of-personality-thriller-never-finds-its-groove\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Opus\u2019: Pop-Star Cult of Personality Thriller Never Finds Its Groove"},"content":{"rendered":"
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John Malkovich in Opus<\/em> Anna Kooris\/Courtesy of A24<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

America has never been more beholden to the cult of celebrity than it is today, having elected an unstable game show host President who in turn has appointed an array of TV and Internet personalities to run our government. Our attention-based economy requires that we all buy in, curate an audience, build a personal brand, become either Influencer or Influenced. With his feature directorial debut, <\/span>Opus<\/span><\/i>, Mark Anthony Green<\/a> casts John Malkovich<\/a> as a stand-in for dangerous obsession with charisma and nostalgia and pits him against Ayo Edebiri<\/a> as a Millennial\/Gen Z everywoman with ambitions of stardom. It\u2019s fertile ground for a satirical thriller, but <\/span>Opus<\/span><\/i> doesn\u2019t probe deeply enough to say anything interesting, and what Green does have to say isn\u2019t terribly clear. <\/span>Opus<\/span><\/i> isn\u2019t as superficial as the world it\u2019s commenting on, but it\u2019s not cleverer, either.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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OPUS<\/b> \u2605\u2605\u00a0<\/strong>(2\/4 stars<\/em>)<\/strong>
Directed by:<\/strong> Mark Anthony Green<\/span>
Written by: <\/strong>Mark Anthony Green<\/span>
Starring: <\/strong>Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Amber Midthunder, Stephanie Suganami, Young Mazino, Tatanka Means
Running time:<\/strong> 104 mins.<\/p>\n\n<\/td>\n

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Ariel Eckton (Edebiri) is a young journalist working at a prominent pop culture magazine who\u2019s always passed over for the big assignments by her editor, Stan Sullivan (Murray Bartlett<\/a>). But when the reclusive pop idol Moretti (John Malkovich) invites both of them to preview his first album in decades, Ariel gets her first look at the strange and carefully-curated world of this outrageously wealthy cult figure. The only true outsider amongst worshipful fans and jaded media veterans, Ariel seeks to uncover the dark secret of Moretti\u2019s secluded compound. But the more interesting question may be: Why was she invited in the first place?<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Ariel\u2019s boss, the rest of Moretti\u2019s guests come from the high echelons of their respective media. Juliette Lewis<\/a> plays \u201cthe most hated sex symbol on TV,\u201d Melissa Chambers is an elite paparazza, Stephanie Suganami<\/a> is a social media influencer and Mark Silversten is a former associate of Moretti\u2019s who\u2019s since become a popular podcaster. The trouble is that beyond these descriptions we never learn much about any of them. So when mysterious fates befall them one by one it has little impact. Even Ariel\u2019s personality and goals don\u2019t do much to color what is otherwise a bland viewpoint character: the only sane person in a land of lunatics. Perhaps absent character specificity the guests are meant to serve as avatars for the media forms they represent, but there\u2019s not much of that, either.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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From left: Ayo Edebiri, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Melissa Chambers, Stephanie Suganami stand in front of John Malkovich in Opus.<\/em> Courtesy of A24<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few smaller roles do pop, such as Amber Midthunder<\/a> as a silent concierge\/enforcer on Moretti\u2019s compound. The <\/span>Prey<\/span><\/i> star once again proves that nothing is more menacing than someone who is 5-foot-5 and has soft facial features but a Terminator stare. Tamera Tomakili (<\/span>Winning Time<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Fruitvale Station<\/span><\/i>) also makes an impression as one of Moretti\u2019s perfectly pleasant followers, as does young Aspen Martinez as an emotionally manipulative and totally brainwashed child of the Moretti compound.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Malkovich, he has entirely the wrong kind of charisma to play a universally beloved, chart-topping icon. He could be convincing as the (far more common) soft-spoken \u201cgenius\u201d cult leader, like NXIVM\u2019s Keith Raniere, but as \u201cthe Wizard of Wiggle,\u201d a sort of male Madonna or bald Bowie? Not even songs by The-Dream & Nile Rogers can sell that. It\u2019s likely that Mark Anthony Green meant for the public\u2019s obsession with this live-action Jack Skellington to read as absurd, but it still doesn\u2019t quite work.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ayo Edebiri in Opus<\/em> Anna Kooris\/Courtesy of A24<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Opus<\/span><\/i> is an idea salad, a jumble of concepts, but it\u2019s most prominently a condemnation of the cult of personality. Through Moretti\u2019s cult, Levelism, <\/span>Opus<\/span><\/i> takes aim at exceptionalism and false meritocracy, positing a culture in which ordinary people willingly submit or even torture themselves in a quest to discover and celebrate the exceptional. It\u2019s a sort of logic that those who have found fame and fortune naturally want to support. After all, if other successful people are merely lucky rather than worthy of \u201cgreatness,\u201d then they themselves might not be special, and the have-nots may deserve more than they\u2019ve got. Ariel, our everywoman, can see through this bullshit more easily than the other, more influential guests, but she\u2019s not entirely immune, nor are most of us watching.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the basic level of a thriller, however, <\/span>Opus<\/span><\/i> never finds its groove. Shocking events simply happen and are then explained later, rather than building up and paying off suspense. Reveals that should theoretically help the narrative click together end up muddying it in hindsight. It\u2019s the sort of film that\u2019s weaker the more you think about it, which is an unfortunate fate for a social satire. It\u2019s occasionally funny, occasionally shocking, but mostly disappointing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\u2018Opus\u2019<\/p><\/div>\n