"Opus" Is Fun But Doesn't Know Its Own Motivation

Everyone wants to create their magnum opus, the work that will last long after they themselves have faded from memory. In the psychological thriller Opus, that desire is explored both from the perspective of a person who has already achieved stardom, and someone who has yet to achieve anything at all. 

At the start of Opus, music journalist Ariel Ecton—played by Ayo Edibiri—is completely average. Her friend goes so far as to call her “middling”, pointing out that she grew up middle class, has an average level of talent, and never had anything interesting happen to her. It makes the general conceit of these types of movies clear: the main character is normal, a vessel for the audience to relate to. 

When famous musician Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich) decides to revive his career with the release of a new album, Ariel’s world is forever changed. Moretti invites six journalists for a sneak preview at his home: Ariel, her boss Stan (Murray Bartlett), a TV gossip, an influencer, a paparazzo, and a man who publicly feuded with the singer in the past. The six embark on an hours-long journey, first by plane and then by bus, to a compound in the middle of the desert. There, people in blue call themselves the “Levelists”.

It is, of course, a cult. While the rest of Moretti’s guests are far more interested in the music, Ariel takes it upon herself to find out all she can about the Levelists. Although their ultimate goal remains unclear even at the end of the film, the Levelists believe that people need to use their right brain as opposed to their left brain and work to make creative masterpieces in order to become gods. 

Ayo Edibiri: A Star

The shining light in this movie is Ayo Edibiri. After soaring to mainstream fame for her role in The Bear, Edibiri proved her comedic chops both in red carpet interviews where she claimed to be Irish and in the campy high school lesbian comedy Bottoms. While this movie wasn’t as tension-filled as The Bear nor as hilarious as Bottoms, Edibiri was able to bring her distinctive style to make it come alive.

The fact that Ariel is a young Black woman isn’t explicitly mentioned, but that dynamic underpins so much of what happens in the early days on the compound. She is treated as silly by her older, white peers. The only Levelist to interact with her honestly is a Black woman. When Moretti sexualizes the female journalists, it is clearly uncomfortable for Ariel in particular. 

During uncomfortable scenes where Ariel was pushed beyond her boundaries, it was Edibiri’s facial expressions and subtle shifts that truly sold the scenes and made it feel real. Ariel was an emotional human, but she was also someone who wanted to follow the rules and wouldn’t push boundaries too far. It was something I could relate to as a young person navigating a world that’s often built for older white men.  

Suspension of Disbelief

From the start, it’s clear that the other guests on the compound are going to be ignorant until their last breaths. I appreciate that if everyone was suspicious, the movie would come to an end very rapidly, but I would like to see more suspicion from people who are clearly at a cult gathering. It felt unrealistic and took me out of the movie every time one of the characters treated Ariel like she was crazy for mentioning the weirdness.

When Ariel pitched a piece on the Levelists for the magazine, Stan shot her down immediately. He did not see anything interesting about the cult Moretti was living in at all. The story was the music, he said, and he would be writing it. 

I have to admit, I am unable to wrap my head around a world where Moretti being a leader of a cult would not make for a headlining story. Ever since media was invented, people have wanted to know the intimate details of celebrities and the people they look up to. One of the most enduring articles of all time is the 1985 story “Hollywood’s Brat Pack”, a New York Magazine feature that highlighted the lives of actors Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, and Sean Penn. It wasn’t commentary about their acting that sold copies, it was the lurid details of their personal exploits.

It was impossible for me to suspend my disbelief around both the lack of interest in the cult, and the belief that the general public would have no interest in the cult. This bugged me throughout the film and made it difficult to fully immerse myself in the viewing experience.

The Genre

Over the past half decade, this specific genre of psychological thrillers have risen in prominence, leaving Opus to feel a bit derivative in that respect. It’s not to say that no more unique mysteries of this sort exist, but it does mean that the bar has been raised.

The Menu, Midsommar, Blink Twice, and Get Out, all attempted similar concepts in the recent past: isolated location, cult-like group of people, one young person who sees the truth. I like the idea of a musical entry to the genre. It plays on our idea of fandom and the way our culture worships success. Unfortunately, something fell short in the final execution.

I wish Moretti’s motivations around the cult had been clearer, or perhaps that the cult did not exist at all and the film was instead about the journalists which he felt had wronged him. The strength of the movie lay in the relationship between the musician and the journalist. What does that relationship mean? Is there a contract that can be broken? Where exactly is that line? I left the movie desperate to explore these themes in greater depth.

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Despite the world building and promise of the premise, writer and director Mark Anthony Green was unable to connect all of the pieces in his debut feature film, leaving Opus as a middling entry in an already oversaturated genre.