MAPS TO THE STARS

US, 2014, 111 minutes, Colour.
Julianne, Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Evan Bird, Olivia Williams, Robert Pattinson, Sarah Gadon.
Directed by David Cronenberg.

Canadian director, David Cronenberg, has had a significant career for over 40 years, one of Canada’s best and well-known directors. In his early years, Cronenberg made a number of small-budget horror films and has continued this trend over the decades. His dramas, like Dead Ringers, To Die For, Eastern Promises have been impressive, but always with the touch of something weird.

Maps to the Stars is not a horror film as such but there are some elements. This time it is the weird that predominates. It is Hollywood weird.

The Maps to the Stars are something that tourists want when they visit Los Angeles, indulging in the cult of celebrity, curious about the life of the Hollywood names, wanting to see how this other half lives. At the opening of the film, a young woman, Agatha (Mia Wasikowska) arrives by bus in LA, just like all those other hopefuls. We soon see that she is not like this. She is returning home, her face and parts of her body scarred by injuries in a fire. She initially makes the acquaintance of an actor-writer who moonlights as a limousine driver (Robert Pattinson).

We are introduced to quite a number of characters whose lives intertwine. A central focus is on Havana, an ageing star (Julianne Moore in a performance that won her the Best Actress in Cannes 2014) who is literally haunted by her mother challenging her and deciding whether she should do a role that her mother made famous. But, she is ageing, neurotic, narcissistic, self-indulgent, with the expected problems of sex and drugs. She employs Agatha and relies on her – until she become suspicious and gets rid of her.

One of the problems of this quite weird and ugly look at Hollywood is that none of the characters are sympathetic, even Agatha. One of the characters who shocks us is a 13-year-old actor, Benjie (Evan Bird) far too precocious for his age, already indulging in the LA lifestyle, making a sequel to his successful film, Bad Babysitter. He acts like some of the role models that he sees around him, and is consumed by jealousy of the little boy who plays the child that his character babysits, with some dire results.

And then, there are his parents. His mother (Olivia Williams) is his manager, one of those highly controlling mothers but one who is smart concerning financing and contracts but who is quite emotionally unstable. Her very unlikeable husband, a TV personality and author, is played as a really awful man by John Cusack.

While the film is very well-crafted, one begins to wonder about spending time with these unpleasant, sometimes vicious characters. But Cronenberg, the Canadian outsider to the US, is continuing in the tradition of films that take us inside Hollywood, for example Sunset Boulevard, The Player, immersing us in what we hope is a heightened and exaggerated look but which, over the decades, we realise is in many ways truthful.


1. The films of David Cronenberg? Well crafted? The touch of the weird, of the ugly?


2. The strong cast?
3. Hollywood, Agatha’s arriving, the bus, the convention of the girl arriving in Hollywood with hopes? Not as expected? The limousine, her expecting it, Jerome as the driver, the discussions? Going to the site of the house, the Hollywood sign? Homes, shops, restaurants? Film sets? The Hollywood atmosphere? The musical score?

4. Agatha and her asking for the map to the stars? For tourists? The audience and interest in celebrities? Their homes, curiosity items?

5. The portrait of Hollywood, the references to the movies and television, to personalities, the in-talk, the issue of money, fame, the status of directors and their work, the affected and false talk, issues of sex, drugs, alcohol, personal betrayals, exploitation, cutthroat behaviour, madness, child stars and their erratic behaviour?

6. The interconnections between the characters gradually revealed?

7. Aggie, arrival, from Florida, the institution, the past, the fire and the effect on her face and body, her being comfortable in talking about it, her family sending her away? Mental condition? Going to the family house site, Jerome and interest, the date, sharing ideas, falling in love, the contact with Havana, the job the recommendation from the agent? Her duties, shopping, talking with Havana, the embarrassing scene with Havana on the toilet, breaking wind, Havana’s moods? Going to visit her mother, the background story, her being her son’s agent, her father and his professional life, his physically attacking her? Her driving away, Jerome and the sexual encounter with Havana? Going to see Benjie, talking, communicating, his behaviour and mental attitude, the rituals of death?

8. Benjie, his age, as a star, the Babysitter films, the sequel? His friends, the drugs and the drinking, the girls? At home with his mother and father, his mother as his manager, his anger at her? His father and his neglect? His friend and the shooting of the dog? His interaction with the little boy in the film, jealousy, the discussions with him, throttling him? The boy going to hospital? The visual haunting by the little girl in the hospital who had died? A conscience figure? And death figure? His finally going to see Aggie, the ritual of death?

9. The friends, the drugs, the girls, the sex talk?

10. Havana, her wanting to be in the film, her being haunted by her mother, the mother talking to her? The friends and their discussions? Her not getting the part? The sexual threesome? With Aggie, capricious, the shopping, the frankness, firing her, the sexual encounter with Jerpome?

11. Jerome as an actor, writer, driving, the friendship with Aggie, something more? Driving Havana, his eagerness for the sexual encounter? Aggie seeing him, her disillusionment?

12. The scenes of the production company, the filming, the crew, the atmosphere?

13. No likeable characters, satiric on Hollywood, the inhumanity, the critique of the Hollywood atmosphere?