Director: David Cronenberg
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 111 minutes
Year: 2014
Starring: Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson, Olivia Williams, Sarah Gadon, Carrie Fisher
Description: A tour into the heart of a Hollywood family chasing celebrity, one another and the relentless ghosts of their pasts.
Review: They may be loved by the audience, but the life of a movie star isn’t all that glamourous as you might think. Classics like “All About Eve” and “Sunset Boulevard” showed us this and also “Mulholland Drive”. Director David Cronenberg gives us an insight on the life of film stars, in his very own way. Dark with a little satire.
Croneneberg’s movie, which was selected in Cannes, looks like a dark comedy. It’s a movie that shows us the ideal Hollywood life, which is not that perfect at all. The base is a serious drama, but it’s filled with irony.
The characters that are introduced in the first half hour of “Maps of the Stars” seem to have nothing to do with each other in the first place. Along the way the characters intertwine and we see that they all try to use or take advantage of the other. They all want to keep their status and their glory days are already behind them.
Julianne Moore plays a great role as Havana Segrand, a maniacal actress who still thinks she is one of the best in Hollywood. Moore has a strong opponent in Mia Wasikowska, who plays a film fan with a dark past. John Cusack, who is one of my favorites, doesn’t get enough to do. He has great moments, but his role is simply too small. The role of child star Benji is a bit too much of a caricature instead of an actual person. Robert Pattinson’s role is practically useless.
The Hollywood in “Maps to the Stars” is a nasty, rotten place filled with shameless and egocentric people. I didn’t like the movie very much and it’s really hard to explain why. It was a strange film, unpleasant to watch. Not bad, but not a movie I will ever rewatch either.
Rating: 2,5/ 5
