Maps To The Stars: DVD Review
The Movie:
Hollywood actress Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore) is unraveling as her career flounders. Her self-help psychotherapist (John Cusack) and his wife (Olivia Williams) are busy managing the career of their child-star son. But when a mysterious young woman named Agatha (Mia Wasikowska) befriends a limo driver and aspiring actor (Robert Pattinson) all their lives get together, and nothing will ever be the same as they try to survive in a world of money, fame, ambition, envy, ghosts, and vice.
This film explores what Los Angeles is all about but cranked up to 11. It was crazy to see just how crazy everything was but in all honesty what do you expect from a David Cronenberg film. That’s what he does best. This is just one of those surreal stories that make you sit back and soak it all in. The story of an aging actress in dire need to be relevant is a harsh reality to what really happens to those in entertainment and it makes no apologies in throwing it all out there. It’s funny because as this is a work of fiction you see the film and all I thought was “This HAS to be going on somewhere.”. Every performer in the film has their little intricacies that make them interesting and fit right into a Cronenberg film. With all that being said, it isn’t the best Cronenberg film but it does do what it does best and that’s be weird. It liked this film a lot but not as much as liked Videodrome. Yeah I know it’s from 1983 but I still hold it in the highest regard. The story I feel will be one of those that people will come to when thinking about films that exaggerate LA life from an entertainers standpoint so this is one film that I can definitely recommend. It’s strange but just the right kind of strange. 7/10
