Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich film a wreck at Sundance

To watch “Opus,” the muddled semi-satire starring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is to experience a movie quickly go from promising to punishing.

Authoring the wreck is writer-director Mark Anthony Green, who’s screwed up a usually ironclad story: Unsuspecting pawns get invited by an eccentric rich man on a luxurious getaway only to be caught in its dark underbelly. Home run, right?

After all, that was the set-up for Zoe Kravitz’s infinitely better “Blink Twice” last year and Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” in 2023. Heck, it’s the rough plot of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

Green’s lesser, indulgent, tiresome spin is set around the music industry and the obsessive fandom it inspires. What with Swifties and Little Monsters, his vision is topical in that it’s both relevant and completely surface-level.

Yet at the beginning, “Opus” appears that it could maybe, possibly be fun.

Glam-rocker Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich) hasn’t released a new album or been seen publicly in 30 years when his agent (Tony Hale) announces a record is finally on the way. The world is abuzz, and stunt-loving Moretti invites a select few journos to jet to his Utah estate and be the first to listen to the hotly anticipated tracks.

This film should be reliably filling as pizza for dinner. But the deliveryman is an hour late and has dropped the box.

Related Topics:AyoEdebiriFilmJohnMalkovichSundancewreck

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