- “Opus” follows a young journalist who becomes entangled in a famous pop star’s devious plot.
- The movie ends with a twist that turns the climax of the film on its head.
- Director Mark Anthony Green spoke to BI about the ending and an unlikely parallel to Luigi Mangione.
The cult of celebrity is at the forefront of “Opus,” and the film’s director believes there are interesting echoes between his movie’s ending and the story of Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The genre-bending A24 movie, which is parts satire, dark comedy, and musical, follows Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri), a scrappy early-career music journalist who gets invited to the exclusive listening party for the comeback album of reclusive ’90s pop star Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich).
Ariel’s fellow guests, who are more established professionals like the chauvinistic editor at Ariel’s Rolling Stone-adjacent magazine, a gossip talk-show host, and a paparazzi photographer, have no idea why Ariel got the invite. The true reason for Ariel’s inclusion is revealed in the movie’s final moments.
Business Insider spoke to filmmaker Mark Anthony Green about his feature debut, that devastating twist, and why he thinks there are interesting, albeit unplanned, parallels between Moretti and Mangione.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the ending of “Opus.”
The ‘Opus’ ending has a twist for Ariel
Anna Kooris/A24
When we first meet Ariel, she’s ready for her big break. It seemingly arrives when Moretti’s publicist (Tony Hale) announces the pop star’s big return after 30 years in seclusion: “Caesar’s Request,” his comeback album. Ariel is among the small handful of professionals — most of whom have past beef with Moretti — invited to the singer’s Utah compound for the debut event.
Ariel arrives eager and ready to work on a story about Moretti, only to have her editor Stan (Murray Bartlett) insist that she hand over her notes for use in his feature about the album. She’s the only one among the group who realizes something weird is afoot when it quickly becomes clear that Moretti is running a cult, complete with dozens of devoted sycophants (“Levelists”) in matching outfits hanging onto the aging singer’s every word. They value artistic perfection and believe that talent gets one closer to godliness, and therefore only artists should be in charge of the world.
Even as her comrades disappear one by one and Moretti’s behavior becomes increasingly freakish, no one takes Ariel’s concerns seriously. In the movie’s climax, Ariel finally demands to leave. Moretti agrees, but coaxes her and the remaining others to attend a bizarre puppet show (“The Tragedy of Billie,” where reporters represented by rotting stuffed rats harass a puppet version of the singer Billie Holiday) before departing.
But letting them go was never the plan. The others are violently killed, and Ariel, the sole survivor of that group, is strapped to a chair and forced to watch the Levelists take part in what appears to be a mass suicide ritual, à la the Jonestown Massacre.
One Levelist, another young Black woman Ariel had spoken to earlier, appears to take pity on her and lets her escape. Ariel returns the next morning with the authorities, who find Moretti playing the piano near the dead bodies of the other listening party attendees. Moretti’s followers, who presumably all committed suicide, are nowhere to be found.
Initially, it appears to be a (relatively) happy ending. Yes, a bunch of people were brutally murdered, but Ariel stopped Moretti, and a flash-forward reveals that Ariel wrote a book about the ordeal, catapulting her to the fame and success she desired. The only unanswered question is where the Levelists’ bodies went.
Moretti, now jailed for the murders, finally agrees to talk to Ariel as she’s in the midst of promoting her book. As she’s grilling him about his motive for the murders, he reveals that it was his intention all along to allow her to escape. He knew that the ambitious Ariel would capitalize on the trauma by writing a book, and that’s exactly what he wanted her to do: spread the world of the Levelists’ message. The Levelists aren’t dead at all. In fact, they’re just getting started, having disseminated across the globe to keep spreading Moretti’s teachings.
In the final moments, Ariel realizes with horror that she’s played right into Moretti’s hands, but there’s nothing she can do about it now — she’s in the middle of a press tour.
Green believes there are real-world resonances in ‘Opus’
Some of the parallels in “Opus” are clear. Moretti, for example, seems to be an amalgamation of male pop stars like Michael Jackson and David Bowie, whose fashion and varying personas drew fans to them as much as their catchy music. Ariel’s overeagerness and mistaken ideas about what’s important are in part inspired by Green’s own background as a young journalist: “A lot of Ariel’s mistakes and things that she did, I did,” Green said.
But some of the links are less obvious, like the ways that Moretti’s method of furthering his cause may mirror Luigi Mangione’s.
Mangione is on trial, charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (He has pleaded not guilty to the shooting.) Many have come to view the shooting as a statement against the corruption of the healthcare industry, and Mangione has become something of a folk hero as a result.
For the director, the way Mangione catapulted to fame through an alleged high-profile assassination isn’t dissimilar to the way his fictional Moretti aimed to spread his message through mayhem, murder, and a resulting book deal.
“If you look at Luigi, if he protested against the insurance company, I wouldn’t know his name and you wouldn’t know his name,” Green said. “And if he punched that guy in the face, I wouldn’t know his name and you wouldn’t know his name. But he murdered him and he did it in such a unique fashion that he is a global person.”
Of course, “Opus” was written long before Thompson was killed. Still, it served as an indicator to Green that the “thesis statement” of the movie — the dangers of tribalism and the cult of celebrity — wasn’t off track.
“Some people think he’s a hero, some people think he’s a villain, and that is just a real-world example of possibly Moretti’s approach having success or validity,” Green said.
“Opus” is in theaters now.
