It gives me no pleasure to announce that the new A24 film Opus features not a single penguin, much less even a cameo from Bill the Cat. Still, it seems like a promising enterprise on paper, especially considering the au courant casting.

Ayo Edebiri, whose standout work on Hulu’s The Bear and aura of bemused Gen-Z unflappability has made her a cultural touchstone, stars as a young pop-culture journalist who is unappreciated to the point of invisibility by her elders, most pointedly her boss. He’s played by Murray Bartlett, best known for his standout work on the first season of Max’s The White Lotus and (one amazing episode of) The Last of Us. They’re both invited to the remote compound of reclusive pop superstar Alfred Moretti, who’s on the verge of releasing his first album in decades. This is presumably a reference to the egomaniacal stunt Kanye West mounted a few years back when he forced a cadre of desperate scribblers to travel to Wyoming to lay first ears on his new tracks. Here, though, the iconic oddball is embodied by a hammy John Malkovich, doing his level best to bring some degree of specificity to a weirdly underwritten role.

Along with Edebiri and Bartlett, the small group of invitees includes stereotypical personifications of The Influencer (Stephanie Suganami), The TV Lady (Juliette Lewis), The Paparazzo (Melissa Chambers), and the Grizzled Old-School Journo (Marl Silvertsen). Once this sextet arrives at Malkovich’s compound and meets the cheerful, uniformed sycophants who inhabit and maintain it, they all realize that something creepy is going on. Actually, scratch that—it’s only our audience surrogate Edebiri whose Spider-Sense kicks in. The rest of the bunch are so blinded by the cult of celebrity that they excuse the rest of the cultlike behavior they witness as merely the eccentricities of a legendary artist. This is the closest Opus gets to having a perspective or a point.

From this setup, writer-director Mark Anthony Green, a former entertainment journalist making his first feature, could have crafted an incisive satire of fame and the insanity it engenders in both the famous and their ostensible critics. Instead, it’s content to note that, gosh, famous people are weird, and we (i.e., the royal, cultural “we”) are way too willing to indulge their eventually murderous whims. On top of it all, the songs we hear from this ostensibly legendary talent, the very reason for all of this media attention, aren’t exactly Best Original Song-quality numbers. (Or maybe they are, considering the recent quality of nominees in that benighted Oscar category.)

If Opus had dared to be more specific in its satire, even darker in its depiction of deluded depravity, it could have developed enough bite to make it worthwhile. If Moretti’s cult members all wore swastikas and he forced his brainwashed concubine to parade around in transparent clothing, though, it would only have emphasized that, in so many ways, we live in a world that has made satire redundant. (Opens Friday 3/14 in wide release)

If you need more proof that simply assembling a cool bunch of actors and putting them through their paces in enforced proximity isn’t enough, look no further than The Parenting, a lame horror-comedy that wastes the talents of a dream supporting cast. Rohan (Nik Dodani) and Josh (Brandon Flynn), a couple on the verge of engagement, have rented a large country house for the weekend and invited their parents, each pair of whom have yet to meet their son’s paramour. As if this boneheaded, anxiety-guaranteeing setup wasn’t terrifying enough, it turns out the mansion is (dun-dun-dun) haunted. That’s it. That’s the pitch.

Somehow, a quartet of eminently likable actors were recruited for the moms and dads. Rohan’s adoptive folks are played by Edie Falco and Brian Cox, while Josh’s are Lisa Kudrow and Dean Norris. It’s always great to see Breaking Bad’s Hank Schrader out and about, so I’m glad Norris took some time away from his barbecue restaurant, but there’s something unintentionally upsetting about seeing Cox, Succession’s paragon of ponderous patriarchy, reduced to naked homophobic ranting and projectile vomiting after his character gets possessed by the resident poltergeist. I feel the same way when I hear Logan Roy’s voice in a McDonald’s commercial. As talented and cool as all these performers are, and as prestigious as the small screen has become, it’s notable that all four of these folks are TV actors, not primarily movie stars, with apologies to Cox. That fits The Parenting’s overall vibe. It was written by longtime Saturday Night Live scribe Kent Sublette, and would have worked better as an eight-minute sketch. Director Craig Johnson has done much more interesting work when given richer material, notably in 2014’s The Skeleton Twins and 2017’s Wilson. Here, he (as well as his two overshadowed leads) can only hope for better results in the future. (Streaming on Max)

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ALSO THIS WEEK

S/He Is Still Her/e: The Official Genesis P-Orridge Documentary: A boundary-demolishing icon who transcended gender and created a cascade of art, music, and philosophy, Genesis P-Orridge passed away in 2020. Here, director David Charles Rodrigues assembles a fitting tribute to this unclassifiable entity, including interviews conducted during the last year of their struggle against the leukemia that would ultimately bring an end to their earthly existence. (Hollywood Theatre, Fri. 3/14)

Seeking Mavis Beacon: Millions of students learned their now-integral keyboarding skills from the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing software program, but the Haitian model who became the faceof Mavis Beacon has vanished into obscurity. Director Jazmin Jones and colleague Olivia McKayla Ross try to track down the real Mavis in this documentary that interrogates issues of race, gender, and artificial intelligence. (Tomorrow Theater, Sun. 3/16)

There Is Another Way: This documentary profiles the Nobel Prize-nominated group Combatants for Peace, a group of Israelis and Palestinians working together to bring a nonviolent end to the conflict between their populations, a task that has become more challenging and more urgent since the October 7 attacks and the Isrealsi government’s assault on Gaza in response. (Cinema 21, Tue 3/18)

The Blind Owl: The prolific Chilean-born filmmaker Raúl Ruiz (1941-2011) took a truly global approach to his work, and he loosely adapted a 1937 novel by Iranian novelist Sadegh Hedayat for this 1987 French production. It’s a dreamlike tale about a projectionist who becomes entranced by the films he screens even though their intended audience largely ignores them. Presented by Church of Film. (Clinton St. Theater, Wed. 3/19)

PHYSICAL MEDIA

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema Vol. XXIII: This latest collection of relatively unheralded pics from Kino Lorber Home Video includes major Hollywood icons like James Cagney, Steve McQueen, and Burt Lancaster in roles you may not be familiar with. 1949’s Rope of Sand stars Lancaster in a South African-set saga as a man who returns from exile to exact his revenge on the corrupt cops and greedy diamond syndicate that nearly did him in years earlier. It was one of several films to try to recapture the magic of Casablanca by reuniting its cast, here including Peter Lorre, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains, and while it doesn’t reach those legendary heights, it’s a solid, surprisingly brutal thriller that gives Lancaster plenty of opportunities to show off his broad-shouldered strut. McQueen doesn’t have the lead in 1958’s Never Love a Stranger, but it’s his first credited big-screen role, having been released a few weeks prior to The Blob. He plays a police investigator on the trail of his childhood friend (John Drew Barrymore, Drew’s father), whose rivalry with a fellow gangster forms the spine of the story, adapted by Harold Robbins from his first bestselling novel. Cagney, on the other hand, is the white-hot center of the more traditionally noir-ish Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, which was released in 1950, just a year after Cagney’s equally incendiary performance in White Heat. The movie’s clearly trying to capitalize on that film’s success, with Cagney bruising his way through a sordid tale as a psychopathic escaped convict who brings terror and corruption wherever he goes, not least in the form of the corrupt cops he twists to his criminal ends. It’s great fun to watch the star snarl and glower at a fine supporting cast that includes stalwarts Ward Bond, Barton MacLaine, and Luther Adler (plus, blink and you’ll miss him, William Frawley, aka Fred Mertz from I Love Lucy).

These are all highly masculine casts, as was the style then, but in true film noir fashion, each includes interesting work from its designed femme fatale, even if the performers’ life stories match the darkness of the movies. French actress Corinne Calvet was imported by Rope of Sand producer Hal B. Wallis to be the next Rita Hayworth, but following her debut in that film, her intelligence (she studied law at the Sorbonne) and independent spirit led to clashes with studios and she largely withdrew from Hollywood after the mid-1960s. Lita Milan, who played Barrymore’s girlfriend in Never Love a Stranger, was near the end of her acting career at that point, and would go on to marry the son of notorious Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo and retire from performing. She reportedly lives a reclusive life in Madrid to this day. Most tragic of all is the tale of Barbara Payton, who co-stars in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye as the sister of Cagney’s fellow convict, who’s murdered (by Cagney) during their escape. She’s fantastic in the part, matching his ferocity and amorality step for step, which makes it all the more depressing to hear (on historian Alan K. Rode’s commentary track and elsewhere) about the depths to which she sank in the years following this high point in her career. Payton was married five times and had affairs with, among others, Bob Hope, Howard Hughes, and Detour star Tom Neal. The latter of those three basically got her exiled from Hollywood after he viciously attacked actor Franchot Tone, who was engaged to Payton at the time. She descended (further) into alcoholism and bad decisions before dying at the age of 39 from liver failure. It’s no headline that Tinseltown had a predilection for chewing up young women and spitting them out, but it’s still galling to learn the fates of women like these three, each of whom showed promise and charisma, but were prevented from fully realizing their talents by the disposable nature of their jobs.

ALSO OPENING

The Actor: When New York actor Paul Cole (André Holland) is beaten and left for dead in 1950s Ohio, he loses his memory and finds himself stranded in a mysterious small town where he struggles to get back home and reclaim what he’s lost. Directed by Duke Johnson (Anomalisa). (Regal Fox Tower)

Sponsor

Black Bag: When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse (Cate Blanchett) is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband (Michael Fassbender) — also a legendary agent — faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage, or his country. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. (wide)

Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story: Celebrate Liza Minnelli’s 79th birthday with this star-studded tribute to a legend of stage and screen. (Kiggins Theatre, Salem Cinema)

Novocaine: When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped, a man (Jack Quaid) incapable of feeling physical pain turns his rare condition into an unexpected advantage in the fight to rescue her. (wide)

REVIVALS

Friday 3/14

• Butterfly in the Sky [2022] (5th Avenue Cinemas, through 3/16)
• Leprechaun 3 [1995] (Cinemagic, with actor Caroline Williams in attendance)
• The Lost Boys [1987] (Academy Theater, through 3/20)
• Showgirls [1995] (Academy Theater, through 3/20)
• Wanda [1971] (Academy Theater, through 3/20)
• Wild At Heart [1990] (Kiggins Theatre, through 3/16)
• The Wizard of Oz [1939] (Kiggins Theatre, through 3/16, also 3/18)

Saturday 3/15

• Angels with Dirty Faces [1938] (Cinema 21)
• Clerks [1992] (Cinemagic, also 3/18, 3/19)
• The Faculty [1998] (Cinemagic, also 3/18, 3/19)
• The Frighteners: The Director’s Cut [1996] (Cinemagic, also 3/17, 3/20)
• Ghost [1990] (Hollywood Theatre)
• Madeline [1998] (Hollywood Theatre, also 3/16, in 35mm)
• My Girl [1993] (Cinemagic, also 3/16)
• Picnic at Hanging Rock [1975] (Cinema 21, also 3/20)

Sunday 3/16

• Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams [1990] (Tomorrow Theater)
• Cabaret [1972] (Salem Cinema)
• Frances Ha [2012] (Cinemagic, also 3/17)
• Roujin Z [1991] (Hollywood Theatre)

Monday 3/17

• The Crying Game [1992] (Hollywood Theatre)
• The Quiet Man [1940] (Kiggins Theatre)

Tuesday 3/18

• Guru the Mad Monk [1970] (Hollywood Theatre, on 35mm)

Wednesday 3/19

• My First Film [2024] (Hollywood Theatre)

Thursday 3/20

• All of Us Strangers [2023] (Tomorrow Theater)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest [1975] (Hollywood Theatre, on 35mm)