You’d imagine that meeting your favorite music artists would feel like the most spellbound and full-circle moment of your life, but when it comes to A24’s first trailer for upcoming music thriller Opus, this is far from the case. Yesterday (January 21) A24, which has made some of the best Max movies, dropped the first-look trailer (see below) for Opus starring John Malkovich and Ayo Edebiri, star of one of the best Hulu shows, The Bear. With its March 14 release date now in the calendar, I’m already buckled in for what will undoubtedly become one of my favorite new movies this year.
From filmmaker Mark Anthony Green in his feature directorial debut Opus is a music horror-thriller focussing on Ariel Ecton (Edebiri), a magazine writer determined to get her hands on a career-altering story when missing pop star of 30 years, Alfred Moretti (Malkovich), surfaces from a compound to unveil new music to a private select group of celebrities. When Ariel accepts a personal invitation to spend the weekend at his compound, she sees it as a bold career opportunity but finds herself amidst a cult run by Moretti himself, whose plans to release new music are much more unsettling than anticipated. Think Mark Mylod’s The Menu (2022), but with a pop cult fandom edge.
Though the movie’s theatrical release isn’t until spring, Opus is set to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival on January 27. In addition to its two leading stars, Green’s feature packs a solid supporting cast including Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Amber Midthunder, Stephanie Suganami, Young Mazino, and Tatanka Means.
Macro Film Studios, creators of Sorry to Bother You (2018) and Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), has taken the reins on production, enlisting Joshua Bachove, Collin Creighton, Poppy Hanks, Jelani Johnson and Brad Weston as producers.
Pop music meets Ayo Edebiri – is this movie made for me personally?
You can bet your bottom dollar that when the trailer for Opus dropped, I paused everything in the moment to fully immerse myself in yet another Ayo Edebiri-centric piece of media. Since watching her in FX’s The Bear, Inside Out 2 (2024), and of course Emma Seligman’s black comedy high school satire Bottoms (2023), I’ve become the self-styled president of the Ayo Edebiri fan club.
But as an admirer of movies like The Menu (2022) and someone who actively participates in fan culture, I’ve been patiently waiting for a movie like Opus to examine and exaggerate fan behavior through the lens of a cult. And since platforms like TikTok have enhanced the ferocity and defensive nature of music fandoms, there has never been a more appropriate time for a movie like this to come along – hence why it has shot right to the top of my must-watch list for 2025.
All things aside, the trailer reinforces a fun conspiracy about artists taking long absences that I can’t help but hyperfixate on. Who knows, maybe Rihanna’s decade-long break from music is much more than a simple retirement period…?