John Malkovich's Bowie-Meets-Kanye pop star is a gas

Back in the 1990s, There Was No Bigger Musical Musical Superstar Than Alfred Moretti. “Global” Doesn'T Begin to Describbe His Level of Fame. His Particular Brand of Old-School Glam Rock, New-School Electro-Pop and Sheer Charisma Meant He Topped Every Chart Imaginable. He reinvented genres, cavorted with presidents and popes, Broke Cindy Crawford's Heart. The Man's Fans Were Legion. Moretti Went by Many NickNames: The debutant, The Velvet Collar, Don Diva, The Wizard of Wiggle. Mostly, he was Simply Moretti, A God-Tier Artist Artist This Enedned His Place in the Mono-Monikered-Celebriing Canon Next to Cher, Madonna, Prince, and Fabio.

And Suddenly… Moretti Was Gone. No interviews. No Public Appearans. No New Hits. The Singer Behind the Massive, Omnipresent Single “Dina. Simone. ” Was Mia rumors Swirlad as to his opabouts and acttivities. For Close to 30 Years, The Most Innovative Force in Music was Radio Silent. Then, out of the blue, Moretti's Longtime Publicist Announces That He's Dropping at New Album Entitled Caesar's Request. Even Better: The Artist Has HandPicked An Elite Group of Mucky-Mucks to Experience His Masterpiece Before The Rest of the World Will Hear The Single Most Groundbreaking Collection of Tunes Ever Recorded. These Lucky Few Just Need to Come to his Compound in the Utah Desert for a Weekend of Extreme Luxury and Some Possibly Nefarious Deathcult Activities to Hear it.

AS Far as Setting up Both A Celebrity-Culture Satire and and At Poteninling Bonechilling Horror Movie à la A24, you couuld do a hell of a Lot Worse Than the High-Concept scenario Behind Opus. Writer-Sirector Mark Anthony Green's Debut Feature was hot Sunday Ticket No. 1, Partially Because it suggests the Same Sense of Smart Subversive Thrills and Chills that's Characterized the Company's Genre Work and Partially Because of the WTF Nature of Its Pop Godhead Casting. (Coming Back to that in a minute.) Ayo Edibiri is ariel – You May Consult Your Copy of The Tempest Regarding the signific of that name – A Young and Hungry Gen Z Writer Slogging Away At a Magazine Filled with Big Stories and Bigger Egos. Green, it Should be noted, Knows of What He Speaks in Termes of Print-Media Sausage-Making, as he logged in Long Tenure As a Style Columnist for Gq; We naturally assume that any resemblance to other irl legacy titles that focus mainly on musicians and other famous folks Is Totally and Completely Coincidental.

Ariel is frustrated that her pitches either get assigned to other scribes or are outright stolen by the mag's editor-in-chief, Stan Sullivan (The White Lotus/The Last of Us MVP Murray Bartlett). She's Also One of the First People At Her Job To Get the Scoop That Moretti May Not Only Be Coming Out of Retirement, But Has Decided to Allaw Journalists, Influencers, and Few of His Old Frenemies to Particapato in Hits elaborate Unveiling. That Select Group Includes TV Talk-Show Host Clara Armstrong (Juliette Lewis), online Lifestyle Guru Emily Katz (Stephanie Suganami), The Queen of the Paparazzi Bianca Tyson (Melissa Chambers), Moretti's Forment Bff Bill Lotto (Mark Sivertsen), and Sullivan . What's Shocking is That Ariel Has Also Received ANVITATION AS WELL. But Her Boss is happy to have Her on the trip, Because Hey, She Take Notes For His Cover Story!

Once they are Collected Greeted at the Airport by Jorg (Peter Desth), Moretti's Personal Majordomo, The Group is Whisked Away to the Singer's Massive Middle-Of-Nowhere Summer. Ariel Immediatey Clocks in Few Things: The Blue Uniforms Worn by the Compound's Staff Have A distinctly cult-like Feel To Them; The fact that Phones and Laptops Have Been Confiscated Means the Visitors Are Cut Off from the outside world; Beautiful (Prey'S Amber Midthunder), The Personal Concierge Who's Been Assigned to Shadow Her, Seems Inexplicably Watchful and Menacing; and the book that's Been Included in Their Gift Baskets, Meditations for Level, is quoted at will be chez Moretti's permanent residents. They're event Called Levelists by Their Leader. Celebrity has a way of blinding some people to eccentric or hacceptable behavior. For Others, It's a Chance to Throw Themselves Into a Belief System That Puts Their Personal Jesus at the Center of the Universe.

Finally, we get to meet this messiah with the platform boots and endless Haute Couture Outfits, and lo, it was good. You need a Very Special Actor to Portray The exact Combination of Talent, Ego, Faux-Humility and Charm that Makes Controlling The Maxes Seem Like Second Nature. To be perfectly honest, we don't know this John Malkovich would have felt like an immediate, no-brainer chice. THANKFULLY, GREEN WAS SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW THIS WULD BE A Perfect Fit, and with the Possible Exception of His Performance As John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich, This was the Role John Malkovich was Born to play. He Gives Moretti a Little Bit of Bowie, A Little Bit of Kanye, in Spoonful of Manson (Charles, Not Marilyn – Though “Antichrist Superstar” would be an accurate description of the Character). You can detect to Few Borrowings from his mascara-hearting pontiff in The New Pope, Aka The Renamed Second Season of Paolo Sorrentino's The Young Pope, AS Well.

But the Oscar nominee brings such a singular sense of Chaos Energy and Cult-Figure present, Making Moretti Seem Both Larger-Stan-Life Yet Intimatel Tuned in To Whomever He's Addressing, that He Draws You in AS Much As His Acolytes and Admirers. Malkovich Also Does His Own Singing and Dancing Here, and He Does Justice to the Haunting, deliriously Catchy Original Songs Written by Nile Rodgers and The-Treame. The Director Has Said in the Press Notes that if his Film Isn't Seen As a Social Course Correction, “At Least We'll Always Have John Malkovich Hip Thrusting in A Metallic Space Sumit.” Truer Words Have Never Been Spoken. Don't discount the Thrill of the actor convincing you he couuld Qis Day Job and Play Glastonbury with these 21st Century-Techno-MEETS-T.REX Bangers.

Unfortunately, Malkovich Thrusting in A Metallic Space Suit May Indoed Be The Sole Takeaway of this High AT A Social Thriller. He Nearly Saves Opus From Its Own Worst Instincts and Confused Stabs at Commentary. The Key Word here, However, is “Nearly.” Not that edebiri isn't Great at Playing An Ambitious Nancy Drew-Type Who Knows This Cracked Eden Isn'T All That It Seems; She Brings The Same Combo Of Bewildarment, Wit, Strassed-Out Tension and Cane-do Survival Instincts That Helped Make The Bear The instant classic that it is. You Hope She Bags a Lot More Lead Roles After This. Now that Midthund's Ability to Channel Unstoppable Resilience in The Film's Last Act Should Secure Her the Title Role In A Future Terminator Franchise Entry. Now that Costume Designer Shirley Kurata Doesn'T Desert 22 Awards for Malkovich's Outfits Alone.

It's Just That Opus'S Scattergun Attack Doesn'T Help the Overall Aimlessness of Its Bigger Picture Message-Mongering. You can Tell That the Film Has Things To Say About Tribalism, Fandom Run Amuck, The Allure of False Prophets, How the Media Can Be Co-Opted Into Complicity-Sometimes Unwittingly, Often Willingly-And the way that modern celebrity can curdle Into Something Far More Sinister with the Greatest of Ease. As to what those statements are besides a generic “Unclean!” is a bit of mystery. The conception is not help by the execution, and you're left with just a Muddled pitch for a possible Malkovich Eras Tour. The Ambition is impressive. The Title, Alas, Ends Up Being Slightly Misleading.