Movie review: Map to the Stars - shooting stars

What doesn’t kill you, will make you famous

David Cronenberg has sustained a 45-year career out of exploring themes that most people would not dare entertain on film.  The director’s new project Map to the Stars refers to the cartography that allows fans to know where their favourite Hollywood stars live, and the obsession with fame and money that consumes many wide-eyed hopefuls as they step off the Greyhound bus.  In a world where we live envious digital lives but have a banal existence offline, it is easy to see how this culture has trickled down to a wider audience.

Map to the Stars is satirically acerbic and dark, yet it is cinematically fulfilling because it turns the notion of voyeurism and the reality TV concept of being famous for the sake of  being famous on its head.

The movie is centered on a Hollywood family with patriarch, Dr Stafford Weiss (John Cusack) who has made a fortune as a new-age psychologist and sells yoga and tough love to the stars. Olivia Williams, plays his wife Christina, a very controlling mother who manages the acting career of Benjie, her 13-year-old son. Benjie has just been released from drug rehabilitation and is looking to resurrect his acting career. On the opposite end of the spectrum, but looking to do the same, is Havana Segrand played by Julliane Moore. She is an ageing and fading actress who has lived in her movie star mother’s shadow and will do anything to play her in a new movie. Mia Wasikowska plays Agatha Weiss, a burn victim who has just been released from a sanatorium after she tried to kill Benjie, who happens to be her younger brother. She befriends Jerome Fontana (Robert Pattinson), a limo driver who is also an aspiring actor and a screenwriter. At first, he brushes off Agatha’s advances but soon they start dating; though by his own admission as research for a script he is writing. Their lives are twisted and very often difficult to watch. They live in a detached bubble of their own and are willing to do anything to preserve the veneer.

Cronenberg directs a superb cast with Moore giving a towering performance. It is easy to see why and how she has been able to stay clear of the usual pitfalls of being a female actor in Hollywood. John Cusack, himself a teenage star of many 1980’s John Hughes movies, has cited the importance of a movie like Map to the Stars because of the effect the culture of Hollywood and the fame parade has on young actors. For this reason, it is heartening to watch Robert Pattison seek out an auteur to help him define his career.

This movie has many scenes and concepts which are difficult to direct and portray, but it has been well executed. Cronenberg’s films always work on multiple levels and this one is no different. The story does not have to be sought out. It’s pretty evident. It’s honest. But it may require a little effort to watch at some points.

More for David Cronenberg fans

1.  Videodrome



The CEO of a struggling television station discovers a signal featuring extreme violence and torture. As he explores the shadowy world to gain more subscribers, he uncovers layers of deception and a series of bizarre and violent hallucinations.

2.  The Fly 



An eccentric scientist invents ‘telepods’ for instantaneous teleportation of objects. However, its genius will only be recognised once transportation of living things is perfected. Whilst teleporting himself, a fly sneaks into the pod resulting in him taking on the physical traits of a fly.

3.  Dead Ringers



Elliot and Beverly Mantle have contrasting personalities. Eliot, being the gregarious type, seduces women and then passes them on to the shy and passive Beverly when he tires of them. But when Beverly gets attached to Claire, things begin to go awry.

This movie is rated NC-17. It contains nudity and strong language.

Rating: 4/5

Vivian J Xavier is a cinematographer. He tweets@vivianjxavier

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, October 26^th, 2014.