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…

"Mother-daughter incest is so 80's overkill."

Satire of Hollywood nepotism which takes Cronenberg's signature Freudian sexual politics and turns it into a message about how the film industry is in love with itself.

Julianne Moore has unresolved sexual desires for her mother (Electra complex). She hires Mia Wasikowska because she reminds her of her mother (both were injured in fires, fatally in her mother's case). She tries to get hired in a remake of one of her mother's movies in the role of her mother. Mia Wasikowska tries repeatedly to marry her brother before learning that her parents are also brother and sister. Everyone has too much money ("I can't believe I just spent eighteen thousand dollars!"), takes too many…

If I could lay all of the blame on writer Bruce Wagner, I totally would because I am horribly biased when it comes to my intense love of David Cronenberg.

The heavy handed commentary on Hollywood had many highs and lows throughout Maps to the Stars, which maintained a steady unease within me. The satirical and superficial juxtaposed with how memories can haunt people left the movie feeling very uneven, mixed up or even, I hate to say it but, sloppy.

Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska were phenomenal, but I honestly wouldn't expect anything less from them, especially as they were working with a director like Cronenberg who is known for letting actors embody their character and perform naturally from…

Cronenberg literally turns the incestuous nature of Hollywood back onto itself in this film of seedy personalities, dark pasts and parodied cliche. At times it is hard to distinguish how the director has positioned the film, as either a pure biting piece of satire or a literal send-up of a poorly written drama. Mostly it feels outdated and adds very little commentary to the subject of stardom.

The set-up is placed between two connecting stories at the opposite end of career progression. Juliane Moore's Havana is an ageing actress struggling to get a recognisable job, sleeping around for favours and stomping her feet like a stroppy teenager when things don't go her way. On the other side 13-year-old Benjie (played…

The idea of Hollywood as a vast Gothic Mansion haunted perpetually by itself is not a new one, but seldom as spot-on and consistently entertaining as in 'Maps To The Stars'. This is Cronenberg at his loosest and most fluidly comedic since maybe 'Shivers'? This is the most Bruce Wagnerian of any of his deals and my favorite of his works, probably including Wild Palms and I really dig Wild Palms. John Cusack deserves some sort of award for therapy-by-negative-example but the entirety of the cast is way excellent. What appears like it might be a sprawling tapestry at first ends up being way seriously Flowers In The Attic in the best and most possible manner. The only downside of…

“On the stairs of Death I write your name, Liberty.”

I don’t consider myself a David Cronenberg fan since some of his recent films didn’t appeal to me and I haven’t had the chance to see his earlier movies, but I do tend to appreciate his work more than I actually enjoy it. This was the case with the incredibly twisted and dark Hollywood satire, Maps to the Stars. It wasn’t a joyful or pleasurable experience for me, but I did admire some aspects of this film. I tend to go for more straightforward narratives than surreal films so that explains why I enjoyed A History of Violence and Eastern Promises much more than his other films. Those two films…

Agatha (Mia Wasikowska) makes a trip from Jupiter, Florida to Los Angeles, California because it has been seven years since she had seen her family—the very people she tried to set on fire. Her goal is to make amends but she is unsure whether enough time has passed for them to be able to forgive. In the meantime, she gets a job as a personal assistant to Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore), an actress with many connections and even more personal demons, including a history of drug abuse.

“Maps to the Stars,” based on the screenplay by Bruce Wagner, is not the sharpest biting satirical film about Hollywood culture but it does command highly watchable performances across the board. There are…