Fans of movie stars can become dangerously obsessed. But when those fans are family…the obsession can become even more lethal.
‘Maps to the Stars’ is brilliantly and savagely executed. It’s raw and sophisticated. At times almost pornographic.
Julianne Moore is insanely awesome in the role of an actress who is past her prime and desperate to cling on. But just when you think this is a film about an ageing actress being afraid to let go her youth and face her mortality…it becomes about so much more.
Written by Bruce Wagner and directed by the unique ‘Crash’ director David Cronenberg, the actors are superbly cast and fill their roles incredibly. There’s a dark comic element mixed in with a cocktail of frivolous Hollywood and the pursuit of fame (and desperation to never let it go) topped up with an unhealthy dose of fractured family relationships. So just when you think it’s about stardom…it becomes about the bonds of family and how running from the past will never ever leave it behind.
Mia Wasikowska, Olivia Williams, Evan Bird and Sarah Gadon deliver perfect performances while John Cusack and Robert Pattinson are brilliant in their roles…Cusack as a controlling father and Pattinson as -ironically – a wanna-be.
