Revisiting MAPS TO THE STARS: A Parade of Hollywood Oddities

A young girl, Agatha (Mia Wasikowska), arrives in Hollywood from Florida. She wants to get to know the place and hopes to find a job. She also has her own private matters she wants to take care of. These issues are as mysterious as the burn scars that mark her body. Maps to the Stars.

During her stay, Agatha meets Jerome, a driver who is writing a screenplay (Robert Pattinson), Benjie, a cheeky teenage star fresh out of rehab (Evan Bird), and Havana—a washed-up actress with a warped psyche (Julianne Moore). This is only part of the colorful cast of characters that appear throughout the film by David Cronenberg.

The filmmaker has accustomed viewers to disturbing works that probe deeply into human phobias and perversions. At one point, he used expressive means typical of B-class horror; today he has evolved toward a formally elegant psychological drama. He has not, however, abandoned his favorite themes or his characteristic perspective on them (although this time the screenplay is not written by Cronenberg).

In Maps to the Stars, it is the titular stars who take the hardest hits so far, and Hollywood as a whole is portrayed as a breeding ground of hypocrites, deviants, and all forms of duplicity. Spoiled children, deceitful parents, producers exploiting everything and everyone. Against them all, the young protagonist turns out to be the closest to normality.

When Agatha gets a job with Havana (thanks to a Twitter acquaintance with Carrie Fisher), the narrative begins to branch out. On the one hand, we follow Agatha’s further actions and learn more about her goals and her past.

The rest of the film is essentially a parade of Hollywood oddities and their flaws. Cronenberg deftly sticks pins exactly where they will have the strongest effect. He exposes the film-star milieu for its behind-the-scenes bargaining over roles, its transgression of not only moral boundaries but also those of good taste and human dignity. All of this is shown through a distorting mirror; nevertheless, most of the situations depicted resemble tabloid pages.

A word about the acting. While Mia Wasikowska was, is, and (hopefully) will continue to be a very talented actress, in Maps to the Stars she is eclipsed by the absolutely magnificent performance of Julianne Moore. Her Havana is an emotionally unstable actress burdened with complexes and childhood trauma (in which her mother, played by Sarah Gadon, played a role).

Moore conveys a wide range of emotions and psychological states in a vivid and convincing manner, smoothly shifting from deep despair to unrestrained euphoria. The lack of an Academy Award nomination for her was a major oversight. Appearing in supporting roles, John Cusack and Olivia Williams credibly construct their characters—a seemingly happy couple with problems—but these are not breakthrough performances.

Technically, the film is almost flawless. The team includes the names of Cronenberg’s longtime collaborators: Howard Shore, Peter Suschitzky, and Carol Spier. All of them did an excellent job; the audiovisual layer is a pleasure to the senses. The only technical misstep is a short but important CGI scene that looks very bad.

As a whole, Maps to the Stars is a successful film. It incisively condemns Hollywood’s vices while leaving room for the personal drama of its protagonist. The carefully built mood and tension, however, find no release, because the film’s ending is disproportionately modest. In the final scenes, what is missing is what the viewer waits for through almost every screening—a good, sufficiently powerful resolution.