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Chicago Tribune
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
‘Opus' review: John Malkovich and Ayo Edebiri match wits in an album release party gone wild
Cultlike celebrities of a certain size sometimes cross the line between unsettling narcissism and unsettling narcissism with top notes of pathology. This may not be news, even if they make the news fairly regularly, but the frustrating new film 'Opus' treats the toxic intersection of fame and infamy as a big reveal unto itself. It's a sleek enough experience visually, and the songs composed for 'Opus' by Nile Rodgers and The-Dream are pretty tasty. This is the first feature from filmmaker Mark Anthony Green, who wrote and directed and undoubtedly pulled a few ideas for 'Opus' from his ego-navigation experience as a celebrity journalist. Premise: After a nearly 30-year hiatus shrouded in mystery, the '90s pop legend known throughout the world as Moretti — bigger than Dylan, a pale white Prince with a wardrobe inching toward the interstellar — has produced his magnum opus, an album so major it's almost too special for human ears. Moretti launches this album by way of a lavish but exclusive junket held at his remote Southwestern compound, which is staffed by serenely puttering acolytes in thrall to the Scientology-esque religion Moretti subscribes to, known as Leveling. (His followers are Levelists.) The half-dozen who were lucky enough to be invited include five media poseurs Moretti has known a while, including the sycophantic editor of a Rolling Stone-type music magazine. For reasons unknown, a low-mid-level staffer of that same magazine, Ariel, has been invited as well. She's played by Ayo Edebiri (of 'The Bear'). Moretti is played by John Malkovich, because who else? Consigned to providing her boss with a few atmospheric details for his story, Ariel can't help but notice just how strange the goings-on appear. Cellphones are collected from everybody, with the promise of a return later. Moretti likes his guests unshaven, all over, so there's a non-negotiable grooming policy enforced. From there it's one small step to the first disappearing-guest act, and 'Opus' lurches from a satirically insufferable album-release party to a bloody nightmare. It does this while letting the audience get dangerously ahead of the narrative developments. Malkovich certainly holds his own, though there are times when his singular, sidewinding performance energy has a way of sapping a scene's overall rhythm and pace. The supporting cast is a good one, with Murray Bartlett, Juliette Lewis and others filling in the blanks of their thinly conceived characters. Edebiri's the anchor here, but the material is the material, and the material only goes so far. It's a familiar set-up by now: take a swank, remote compound, add an ultra-exclusive guest list and an escalating barrage of bloodletting, a la 'The Menu' or last year's undervalued 'Blink Twice.' 'Opus' has its moments. But even the surprises aren't especially surprising. 'Opus' — 2 stars (out of 4) Running time: 1:43 How to watch: Premieres in theaters March 13
Buzz Feed
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Ayo Edebiri Is Always Singing Something, And More Behind-The-Scenes Facts From The "Opus" Cast
An A24 thriller starring Ayo Edebiri? Yes, please. Opus follows a young writer, Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri), invited to the remote compound of an elusive, legendary pop star (John Malkovich) and his cult of personality who mysteriously fell off the face of the earth 30 years ago and returned with a mysterious plan. To celebrate the film's release, we had Ayo, John, Stephanie Suganami, and Juliette Lewis play a game of Who's Who, and one actor seemed to always be the one singled out. BuzzFeed Celeb Opus also features Murray Bartlett, Amber Midthunder, Young Mazino, Tatanka Means, and Tony Hale, with original music created by Grammy Award-winning producers The-Dream and Nile Rodgers. The cast revealed to us who's most likely to drop off the face of the earth and live off the grid, and Juliette's response made a lot of sense and was incredibly relatable. Ayo was hilariously called out by the cast, including herself, for being the person most likely to break into song for no reason. And while the cast was very obviously different, they unanimously agreed that Juliette wouldn't survive at the end of any horror movie. BuzzFeed Celeb
Associated Press
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Movie Review: An unhinged John Malkovich can't help the cult-horror misfire ‘Opus'
In the new horror movie 'Opus,' we are introduced to Alfred Moretti, the biggest pop star of the '90s, with 38 No. 1 hits and albums as big as 'Thriller,' 'Hotel California' and 'Nebraska.' If the name Alfred Moretti sounds more like a personal injury attorney from New Jersey, that's the first sign 'Opus' is going to stumble. John Malkovich leans into his regular off-kilter creepy to play the unlikely pop star at the center of this serious misfire by the A24 studio, a movie that also manages to pull 'The Bear' star Ayo Edebiri back to earth. How both could be totally miscast will haunt your dreams. Writer-director Mark Anthony Green has created a pretty good premise: A massive pop star who went quiet for the better part of three decades reemerges with a new album — his 18th studio LP, called 'Caesar's Request' — and invites a select six people to come to his remote Western compound for an album listening weekend. It's like a golden ticket. Edebiri's Ariel is a one of those invited. She's 27, a writer for a hip music magazine who has been treading water for three years. She's ambitious but has no edge. 'Your problem is you're middle,' she's told. Unfortunately, her magazine boss is also invited, which means she's just a note-taker. Edebiri's self-conscious, understated humor is wasted here. It takes Ariel and the rest of the guests — an influencer, a paparazzo, a former journalist-nemesis and a TV personality played by Juliette Lewis, once again cast as the frisky sexpot — way too much time to realize that Moretti has created a cult in the desert. And they're murderous. This is Cameron Crowe's 'Almost Famous' crossed with Mark Mylod's 'The Menu.' It's always a mistake to get too close a look at the monster in a horror movie and Green makes the same error with his pop star, ludicrously nicknamed 'The Wizard of Wiggle.' Watching Malkovich, in his 70s, make vulgar pelvic thrusts at his visitors while wearing a weird metallic top really doesn't inspire dread. It inspires cringe and an AARP membership. Costume designer Shirley Kurata has clearly lost the thread, putting Malkovich in Nehru jackets embellished with sprays of crystals, a sarong, gloves with rings on top and platform shoes. He looks less like a superstar than a sommelier at a stuffy molecular gastronomy restaurant: 'This cabernet has notes of chocolate and leather.' Most egregious is that the music doesn't match the expectations. Hitmakers Nile Rodgers and The-Dream wrote several Moretti songs for the film and they're laughably bad Eurotrash pop. The movie opens with slo-mo images of fans rocking out rapturously to Moretti and yet no viewer will want to hear these songs again. They're very middle. Part of the problem is it's not clear what kind of artist he is — a guitar hero? A dance savant? A Lady Gaga-like explorer? Fascinatingly, TV on the Radio's 2008 song 'DLZ' is heard over the final credits, nothing original. If you don't have the goods, why even make this film? As if you didn't already know, not everyone will leave this remote New Mexican compound, where the guests are under constant surveillance, cellphones and laptops have been confiscated, and workers have curious scars. 'This whole thing is a trip,' one says. It gets weirder: Moretti insists all pubic hair be removed. And there's something with oysters. Green wobbles as he tries to land this plane and what had been an intriguing premise to talk about fame and the parasitic industries that live off it turns into a gross-out, run-for-it bloodfest and a plot that unravels. It becomes what it intended to satirize — a pop spectacle. 'Opus,' an A24 release in theaters Friday, is rated R for 'violent content including a grisly image, language, sexual material and brief graphic nudity.' Running time: 103 minutes. One star out of four.
Boston Globe
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
How John Malkovich became a pop sensation and horror star in ‘Opus'
But after decades of life as a recluse, Moretti has at last orchestrated a comeback, and he's invited a crew of journalists and media personalities to his remote sanctuary to preview his new album, 'Caesar's Request.' Among the guests is Ariel Ecton (Dorchester's own Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up John Malkovich as pop star Moretti, whose mood heats up during a children's puppet show on his desert compound, in "Opus." Courtesy of A24 Dripping in bejeweled couture — and surrounded by frighteningly devout followers — 'Opus,' which opens in Boston March 14, presents Malkovich as a bona fide pop deity, complete with a trio of original songs recorded for the film. Malkovich recorded the vocals for Moretti's mini discography at Cybersound Studios in the fall of 2023, shortly before filming began in New Mexico. At the Back Bay studio, he met with 'Opus' writer-director Mark Anthony Green (making his feature debut), as well as song co-writers Nile Rodgers and The-Dream. The two musicians melded their respective pop prowess to craft Moretti's catalog; Rodgers is the groovemaker behind the disco group Chic, and has collaborated with icons including Diana Ross, Madonna, and Mick Jagger, while The-Dream has co-written hits for the likes of Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Britney Spears. 'They had wanted me to come out to L.A. and record, and I just couldn't, I'd been bouncing around like a spinning top,' Malkovich said over a Zoom call last month. 'So they came out to Boston . . . I actually got the songs that morning, and I listened to them in the Lyft on the way to the recording studio.' Advertisement Singing professionally wasn't an unfamiliar venture for Malkovich, who had previously starred in the chamber-opera-play 'The Giacomo Variations' in 2013. But recording a lusty, funkified dance track like 'Dina, Simone' — a song meant to be a hit from Moretti's heyday — was a new challenge. 'When we started singing, I started to explain to the engineer that I'd need to go an octave lower than how the recording was,' Malkovich said. 'He didn't seem terribly interested in that notion.' So Malkovich stretched his vocal range, summoning an octave he hadn't used since age 11, when he wanted to join a boys' choir. The results sound effortless on Filmmaker Mark Anthony Green (middle) gives direction to Malkovich and his co-star Ayo Edebiri for a scene on Moretti's compound in "Opus." Courtesy of A24 Green first visited Malkovich's home outside of Boston in early 2023 to discuss the script and Green's hopes for the film. While developing the character of Moretti, the first-time filmmaker said he only had Malkovich in mind, feeling confident that he could animate Moretti's supersized lore within the film's 103-minute runtime. 'We have a short amount of time to contextualize him amongst the greats: his taste, the peacock flamboyance of it, the little bit of nastiness that John does really well,' Green said. 'Moretti has a fearlessness that I think John Malkovich also has . . . You want somebody to show up that is unafraid of the biggest, best, most interesting outcome, and that's what he brought every day.' Advertisement That includes the actor's fearlessness when gliding around set in platform heels. 'I wore only high-heeled platforms in the '70s — at least six inches — so I actually had a great deal of experience,' Malkovich said. 'Weirdly, platforms don't really hurt your back much, although it could be a challenge to dance in them, to move in them.' Examining society's ongoing obsession with celebrity was a key goal for the filmmaker, who previously spent years interviewing the likes of As Moretti, Malkovich dances for guests in a space-suit-like outfit while he previews music from the new Moretti album in "Opus." Courtesy of A24 'I think to gain the trust of people, you have to present a certain, let's call it, front,' Malkovich said recalling the allure of real-life cult figures like Jim Jones. Moretti maintains that disarming 'front' for much of the film, whether he's twirling to his own music in a space-suit-esque getup, or explaining why his followers eerily take turns shucking oysters in a yurt ('If I go to Summer Shack, it's not for that,' Malkovich chides, referencing the local seafood restaurants). When his calm eventually ruptures, Malkovich unleashes his signature intensity, escalating Moretti from glam grandpa to volatile mastermind within moments. 'I don't think he's altogether horrific,' Malkovich said of Moretti. 'I mean, he's pretty bad, but a lot of pretty bad people have talents.' Advertisement Victoria Wasylak can be reached at vmwasylak@ Follow her on X @VickiWasylak.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
John Malkovich Sings as Fictional Pop Star on New Song 'Dina, Simone': Stream
The post John Malkovich Sings as Fictional Pop Star on New Song 'Dina, Simone': Stream appeared first on Consequence. In the upcoming A24 movie Opus, John Malkovich plays a pop star turned cult leader named Moretti. Ahead of the psychological horror film's opening in theaters next month, the studio has previewed his performance with a new song titled 'Dina, Simone.' Marking Malkovich's first official musical release as a vocalist, 'Dina, Simone' was written and produced by Nile Rodgers and The-Dream. A funky tune hearkening back to the '80s, the track oozes with the creepiness of his character while seducing a 'sweet little thing' in 'tight little jeans.' Stream it below. 'Dina, Simone' appears alongside '35mm' and 'Tomorrow' on the film's soundtrack, OPUS: The Moretti EP, which will be released in tandem with the movie's opening in theaters on March 14th. Written and directed by Mark Anthony Green, Opus also stars Ayo Edebiri as a journalist who is invited to a remote compound to profile Moretti. The rest of the cast includes Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Amber Midthunder, Stephanie Suganami, Young Mazino, and Tatanka Means. Revisit the trailer here. John Malkovich Sings as Fictional Pop Star on New Song 'Dina, Simone': Stream Eddie Fu Popular Posts Taylor Swift Booed at Super Bowl Kid Rock Storms Off Stage After Audience Doesn't Clap Kanye West and Bianca Censori Getting Divorced: Report Ben Folds Resigns from Advisory Position at Kennedy Center Plane Owned by Mötley Crüe Singer Vince Neil Involved in Fatal Crash Dan Aykroyd and Bill Hader Will Be Absent From SNL's 50th Anniversary Special: Report Subscribe to Consequence's email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.
