Maps to the Stars
Focus World | Release Date: February 27, 2015
6.0
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Mixed or average reviews based on 97 Ratings
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39
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5
SpangleDec 8, 2015
Maps to the Stars is a deeply flawed film that is all over the place. Each scene feels loosely connected at best and though it is a captivating look at stars and fame, it just falls apart slowly throughout the film. The acting is very good,Maps to the Stars is a deeply flawed film that is all over the place. Each scene feels loosely connected at best and though it is a captivating look at stars and fame, it just falls apart slowly throughout the film. The acting is very good, but that does not save this one from feeling like a beautiful mess at times. David Cronenberg is a great director, but just did not have control over this one, but for the great portrayal of Hollywood, this one is anything but a disaster. Though messy, it is very captivating and very well shot and would be interesting to place under a microscope to figure out what it all means. However, on the whole, Maps to the Stars just falls flat and does not live up to the performances of its stars.… Expand
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6
ThegodfathersonFeb 28, 2015
Cronenberg's horrifying insight into Hollywood's craziest is a punch to the gut. The acting by Julianne Moore is brilliant and she keeps getting better each time. The story is dissapointing, its creepy and full of unexpected twists coming outCronenberg's horrifying insight into Hollywood's craziest is a punch to the gut. The acting by Julianne Moore is brilliant and she keeps getting better each time. The story is dissapointing, its creepy and full of unexpected twists coming out of nowhere. The odd characters and bloody violent scenes including a head being bashed in by an award, are weird. Maps To The Stars is not as good as I wanted it to be. But it delivers Moore's greatest performance in years, also there is some thrills and popcorn violence fun to be had in Cronenberg's nightmarish potboiler.… Expand
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5
Brent_MarchantFeb 28, 2015
Despite terrific performances by Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska and Evan Bird, as well as some bitingly funny lines, this satirical Hollywood cautionary tale never quite hits its stride, with too many underdeveloped tangents that detract fromDespite terrific performances by Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska and Evan Bird, as well as some bitingly funny lines, this satirical Hollywood cautionary tale never quite hits its stride, with too many underdeveloped tangents that detract from the main story line. The film never quite lives up to its potential, despite the introduction of what initially appear to be some novel narrative elements. Its strengths, regrettably, become lost amidst a plethora of half-baked plot devices, keeping the picture from reaching what it might have become.… Expand
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5
WJSSep 11, 2015
Very strange movie definitely in the weird Cronenberg style. It's listed here as a comedy but I didn't find anything very funny. It's a bizarre take on the ins and outs of the minds of Hollywood. The acting is pretty good (it's almost likeVery strange movie definitely in the weird Cronenberg style. It's listed here as a comedy but I didn't find anything very funny. It's a bizarre take on the ins and outs of the minds of Hollywood. The acting is pretty good (it's almost like Julianne Moore is channeling Lindsay Lohan). I don't think I really liked it very much; it's just way too strange and not really my cup of tea.… Expand
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5
MattBrady99Jul 7, 2015
Cronenberg your so much better then this.

Maps to the Stars follows the lives of the Weiss family - pure Hollywood royalty - including the father, a self-help guru, mother who dotes on 13-year-old Benji - fresh out of rehab and daughterCronenberg your so much better then this.

Maps to the Stars follows the lives of the Weiss family - pure Hollywood royalty - including the father, a self-help guru, mother who dotes on 13-year-old Benji - fresh out of rehab and daughter Agatha a recently-released pyromaniac.

I heard some mix things from Maps to the Stars and that's mostly the reviews it got and yes I do read other critics reviews and other websites like Rotten Tomatoes, but at the end of the day you can't trust RT sometimes, I mean Sharknado get's a 82% ?. I also found out that this movie won Best Actress at The Cannes Film Festival and the best actress went to Julianne Moore which she beat out Anne Dorval for Mommy, in which I disagree with that and I will tell you why later on. Before seeing Maps to the Stars I had low exceptions and wasn't all that excited for it, but I thought since the movie had a big cast and a good director behind it I thought it might be great. After seeing Maps to the Stars I wasn't all that impressed.

The director of the David Cronenberg and he's the kind of director that made some great movies that I think is some of he's best work but he also did some movies that isn't all that great. The Fly, Eastern Promises , A History of Violence and my biggest guilty pleasure of all time Scanners. Those movies are the ones we remember best from him and I thought a movie like this would somehow work for him as maybe he can make this story messed up but always keep my interested, well that's not the case here. I felt like he lost he's touch in this movie like these scene in this movie were a women get's set on fire and oh my god the CG for the fire looked so freaking bad and it really took me out of movie, I mean normally Cronenberg would have use practical effect's back in the 80's or 90's; so happened here?. There was another flaw that I spotted in the movie and that was every time the character's are out side in a open area with cars driving past them but here's the thing they was no sound at all when the cars drive by and the characters wasn't far away from the road but quite near the road. I don't know if this was stylistic choice for the director to blend in the with tone for the movies atmosphere I guest, but I don't see it as that but more of a mess up as this happened more then once and that other time is where these kids are at a party with loud music in the background but we somehow can hear them and they can hear each other. Kind of a cliche Cronenberg.

The other real reason I watch this movie is because of Julianne Moore performance as she won Best Actress at The Cannes Film Festival and Anne Dorval was also nominated but didn't win. So I wondered if Moore's performance was better than Anne Dorval so I watch to judge to see who's better and overall Anne Dorval did a much much better performance than Julianne Moore performance. Julianne Moore didn't do a bad performance, I mean she did good in the movie but Anne Dorval deserved that award more as Dorval broke my heart in the movie Mommy and her performance felt real and easy to get a connect with her character. But with Julianne Moore the only thing I saw was Julianne Moore acting and making some hilarious scenes that I couldn't take seriously. I'm happy that Moore picked a different role from her usual roles and she is good in the movie, but I think Anne Dorval was way better.

Some of the well known actors in this movie were good, but the good stops there as the rest of the actors are just awful in this movie. Like Robert Pattinson wasn't all that great in the movie, it wasn't Twilight bad he just did nothing really special and I know he's better then this. Evan Bird was pretty bad as the **** kid actor but Evan Bird didn't really pull that off and he's reaction to things that suppose to shock him or scary him well he just looked bored.

The movie is also pretty predicable as well. Like these a scene in the movie were Evan Bird character as a real gun that he thinks he empty out all the bullets and he starts waving it around pretending to be shooting it and at one point he starts pointing it to he's head pretending to shoot himself. I predicted what was going to happened and it actually freaking happened. Same again in another scene later on.

This is one of those I saw a ghost kind of stories that's been done to death in recent movies but I would have love if they did something new and even creative with a story like this, but here it's not.

Overall Maps to the Star is a movie that could have been something good coming from a director like David Cronenberg. I know this review may sound like I'm hated everything in this movie but here's the thing this isn't the worst movie I've ever seen, but I'm just naming off flaws in the movie as it's not awful but it's pretty far from perfect.… Expand
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5
DRauchDoes2015Apr 15, 2015
Maps to the Stars is a scattered collection of repulsive characters, some less so than others but, aye, there is nary a sympathetic individual to relate to here. The experience of enduring their forced company is a combination of horrifiedMaps to the Stars is a scattered collection of repulsive characters, some less so than others but, aye, there is nary a sympathetic individual to relate to here. The experience of enduring their forced company is a combination of horrified revulsion, bizarre fascination, and occasional boredom, despite the unrelenting steamroller of antipathetic sentiments. Cronenberg's motive for displaying such abhorrent behavior is in the service of a painfully obvious, yet watchable critique of hollywood, one that doesn't succeed entirely for two reasons. They are (1) how the multiple interweaving characters don't thematically cohere by the conclusion, rendering the significance of their stories hollow, and (2) the loathsome qualities of Hollywood Cronenberg takes aim at being either over-exaggerated for shock value or crude and dull.

Cronenberg adds a supernatural element that, though absurd and melodramatic, adds a touch of distinction to an otherwise reality-grounded tale. This is also a movie that, however misguided and hyperbolic, is fearless in it's presentation. Evident of this is the unabashedly unflattering light cast upon the actors, many rising above it and delivering noteworthy work, particularly the multi-dimensional, accolade-worthy performance by Julianne Moore (seriously, one of her all-time best characters), an uncompromisingly ugly and monstrous creation that borders on villainous, yet is also pitiable and damaged.

Cronenberg can still create disquieting films. Even though Maps to the Stars is jumbled, I can't say I wasn't challenged. The character of Benji, a drug addicted rising star brat is vulgar, barbaric, and downright loathsome. He is brought to life by young actor Evan Bird with an aplomb beyond his years, whose age-to-explicitity ratio reminds me of Chloe Grace Moretz's controversial star turn in Kick-Ass. Also included in Maps to the Stars is a storyline involving incest, an overall indulgence in gratuitous sex and drug abuse, the manipulation of a child's death to further someone's career, and numerous instances of self-serving behavior masked behind a facade of passive aggression. Some of this has become commonplace in tales of excess, but there are occasional developments that I see as unprecedented (did I mention the incest plot line?).

That being said, Cronenberg places all of these potential shock-worthy elements in the service of story that as a whole only intermittently tries to dispense meaning to the proceedings, and it ends on a regressively non-resolute note. When he pitches a scene satirically, the results are often so stone-faced that the line is blurred as to whether or not the cast is in on the 'joke', or if Cronenberg was even trying to be funny in the first place. Some attempts land (I found the quip where Robert Pattinson considers joining the church of Scientology to advance his career pretty left-field), but many of the jabs at hollywood are just as artificial and surface-level as the subject he means to criticize.

But then again, it never is easy to generalize any of the films of David Cronenberg. He often hovers in that odd area of provocation, queasy discomfort, brilliance, and abstraction, and in this work of his, it isn't elucidated as to what it is he's trying to say, more so than many of his other films. I don't mean that he should dumb down his output or avoid challenging his audience, those are the qualities I regard in his work. I do think that, as is the case of Maps to the Stars, he tends to send us down a rabbit-hole of his own unique design where even he doesn't know it leads to. So, yeah, Maps is a bit of a miss for him. It left me feeling sour and perturbed, in a good way, but also indifferent, in a bad way. A mixed bag.… Expand
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