To watch “Opus,” the muddled semi-satire starring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is to witness a movie go from promising to punishing.

He’s played by the great John Malkovich, who actually sings several of the songs featured in the picture. This is reason enough to see this film or at least to be intrigued by it. Malkovich never really left his theatricality behind when he broke through into movies in the 1980s;

"Opus" pairs one of Hollywood's hottest young actors with a living legend in a treatise on fame, the music industry and cults of creativity.

Playing a cross between Bowie, Kanye, and Manson (Charles, not Marilyn), the legendary actor nearly saves this muddled, satirical horror movie. Nearly.