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.

"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.

In Mark Anthony Green's debut feature, also starring Tony Hale, Juliette Lewis and Murray Bartlett, a young writer scores an invite to the remote compound of a legendary musician.