‎Maps to the Stars (2014) directed by David Cronenberg • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Maps to the Stars

2014 Directed by David Cronenberg

Eventually stars burn out.

Driven by an intense need for fame and validation, members of a dysfunctional Hollywood family are chasing celebrity, one another and the relentless ghosts of their pasts.

Julianne Moore Mia Wasikowska John Cusack Robert Pattinson Evan Bird Olivia Williams Sarah Gadon Carrie Fisher Kiara Glasco Dawn Greenhalgh Jonathan Watton Jennifer Gibson Gord Rand Justin Kelly Niamh Wilson Clara Pasieka Emilia McCarthy Allegra Fulton Jayne Heitmeyer Domenic Ricci Sean G Robertson Ari Cohen Joe Pingue Christian Lloyd Donald Burda Amanda Brugel Chris Anton Alden Adair

112 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Derek Diercksmeier ★★★★★ 12

If you ever saw David Lynch's Mulholland Dr. and wondered what it might have looked like with David Cronenberg at the helm, then this is the film for you.

This is a great film and one that only Cronenberg could have made.

This is easily Julianne Moore's best performance and the entire cast is terrific

Bruce Wagner's script is equally haunting and satirical.

Howard Shore's score is absolutely beautiful.

David Cronenberg is one of the best filmmakers around and this is one of his finest works to date.
Review by davidehrlich ★★★½

los angeles seems like a nice place.
Review by brat pitt

i honestly have no idea as to whether or not this is actually a good movie, but if you mention
- ryan gosling
- paul thomas anderson
- nicole kidman
- and literally 29 other celebrities

AND you include a scene of
- julianne moore and robert pattinson banging in a limo

AND you cast
-carrie fisher as herself in a role that is lowkey integral to the plot .....

...... then i WILL be entertained
Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★ 7

Insanity.
Satire.
Brilliance.
Amazing.
Pure Cronenberg.
I loved it.
Review by Matt Singer ★★★ 2

It took two viewings and a two hour discussion to get there, but I'm starting to come around on this movie. It's essentially the incestuous offspring of VIDEODROME and THE BROOD; all child abuse, crackpot therapists, and show business as a sexually transmitted disease. Some have complained that its Hollywood satire feels a little hackneyed -- and they're not wrong. Ultimately, though, that vague sense of staleness fits within MAPS TO THE STARS' suggestion that Hollywood is defined by its complete and utter lack of imagination. There are no new ideas here. The movie Benji is making is a sequel; the movie Havana wants to make is a new version of a film her mother made fifty years ago. In…
Review by Dirk van Eck ★★ 5

From being a millionaire, driven around in a limousine, to driving around millionaires in a limousine. What connection between his two latest features is David Cronenberg trying to communicate through Robert Pattinson, a.k.a. Sparkly Vampire? I do not have a ready answer, but perhaps it’s hidden somewhere in the mumbo-jumbo that constitutes Maps to the Stars; somewhere in-between the forgettable sluggish acting and the pessimisms stacked on pessimisms; somewhere in-between the Hollywood critiques that were fun for twenty minutes, but not for the length of an otherwise plotless movie; somewhere in-between the almost clumsy genre mix of drama, black comedy, ghost horror and psychological thriller. Come on David, you can do better.

Recent reviews

Review by Evan "A Bit Much" Pincus ★★★★½

Lifestyles of the rich, famous and fucked up- not that those three things are all that different. Hollywood isn't an industry, it isn't a neighborhood in Los Angeles, it's a bizarre hellscape that Cronenberg is the perfect director to explore. How he managed to cram the word "flesh" in here so many times is a thing of beauty.
Review by rps ★★★½

با وجودی که جز بهترین های کروننبرگ نیست اما چنان ضربه ای به من زد که یک روز ناک آوت بودم. بیشتر به خاطر بروس واگنر رمان نویس دیدمش و بسیار فیلم خوبی بود که ای کاش می تونستم سوندترک هاوارد شور رو براش دانلود کنم.
Review by Charlie Barrett ★★★★

Nothing screams Hollywood more than incest, ghosts and incestual ghosts!
Review by Crityrion ★★★½

It’s nothing new that Hollywood blows, it’s a tale as old as Sunset Boulevard and The Player. So what does Maps To The Stars have to say in the subject to get audiences primed for the here and now? Screenwriter-novelist-actor Bruce Wagner wrote the script way back in the 90’s when he was working as a limo driver for the Beverly Hills Hotel and witnessed the cesspool that is celebrity up close and personal. Luckily, the world has only become even more superficial and vapid.

Lucky for the rest of us, Maps To The Stars is directed by Canadian maverick David Cronenberg, shooting in the United States for the first time who finds Hollywood to be an ideal place to…
Review by Alberto Farina ★★★½

A young woman with a mystery in her past comes to L.A. and starts working for an aging film star desperate to grab a comeback role in a biopic about her mother. Based on an original screenplay by Bruce Wagner, "Maps to the Stars" is an ice-cold Hollywood noir where different threads dealing with incest, abuse, violence all come together as if they were a Greek tragedy staged like a modern-day version of "Sunset Boulevard". Plenty of stars in this starstruck, disturbing drama, with Carrie Fisher going as bold as playing herself.
Review by Katrina Barnett ★★½

When, exactly, did Cusack start Nic Cageing? Is he OK?

I wish Nic Cage had actually appeared in this movie, btw.
Review by Jack ★★★

John Cusack nudging his wife, who is hilariously on CGI fire, into their pool with a wheelbarrow(?) is one of the most hilarious scenes in any movie ever
Review by santiago garza ★★★★

The members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association watched this movie and decided to give Julianne Moore the Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy nomination based on her delivery of the line:
“You wanna fuck my holes?”
Review by Jes Vannoir ★★½

A bizarre and unrewarding mess which even Julianne Moore, giving an absolutely glowing performance, cannot save.