If you’re not here for Malkovitch, you might as well stay home. Opus is a VERY familiar film… yet another “we’ve been invited somewhere and it’s a cult!” movie and not a particularly good or bad one. Just one that exists in the world. Add it to the pile.

Specifically, it’s about a young magazine writer who gets invited to the come back get-together of a pop/rock music genius played by John Malkovich. He’s a kind of Michael Jackson/Ziggy Stardust type who happens to live in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of cultists.

Aaaand yeah… it’s basically Kirkland Brand Midsommar… and a dozen similar films. It doesn’t do a lot right or wrong though… the cult is obviously full of creepy people but… so what? The film largely makes them a little weird but not too weird either. It’s one of those flicks that has to give us a kill early on to assure us that, yes, there’s “something going on” here.

The flick doesn’t turn into a thriller until uncomfortably late into the movie. And, by that point, it’s kind of a shrug… they hadn’t built things up enough to understand or care about what’s going on. Then it needs an overly-long coda to explain some pretty basic stuff. It’s like they were shooting for an interrobang (!?) and wound up with an ellipsis (…).

And hey…. I love ellipsis… use them all day myself.

John Malkovich in full on “is he still doing weird stuff like this?” mode saves the day. If he wasn’t delightfully unhinged as he sings and dances and prances for his audience, there wouldn’t be a movie worth watching. Both his performances and the thumping, driving songs made for the movie are great fun.

But without Malkovich in Quirky Weird Mode, the film barely earns its watchability. It’s not a bad movie on its own, it’s just a familiar shrug. An afterthought. A Midsommar without the bear and pubic hair.

Score: 76