Maps to the Stars review: David Cronenberg returns to his surreal roots

Posted on 30 September 2014
By George Anthony Heron
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I was secretly hoping this film would be boring so I could use the gag NAPS to the stars at some point. It’s not boring, I’ll give it that. While I am typing this I am still not quite sure what it is. I’ll let my fingers do the talking and see where it takes us.

David Cronenberg impressed me in the mid-to-late noughties with his Viggo Mortensen double The History of Violence (2005) and Eastern Promises (2007). Both are departures from his horror roots of Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly, containing more realistic premises in their respective plots. I’m not acquainted yet with his subsequent releases before this one, A Dangerous Method and Cosmopolis, but I know they continue a path grounded more in reality. I can’t say the same about this one.

The world of Maps To The Stars is filled with an ensemble of dysfunctional, superficial, primadonnas. Everyone in this film is messed up in some way. Julianne Moore is mature actress, Havana Segrand, with designs on a role in a remake of a film her mother once performed. Mia Wasikowska’s (she’s everywhere at the moment) Agatha Weiss is taken on by Havana as her personal assistant/”Chore Whore”. Child actor Benjie Weiss (Evan Bird) is struggling to cope with stardom, further hampered by the Machiavellian tendencies of his mother Christina (Olivia Williams, loved her in Dollhouse) and father Stafford (John Cusack) who is more interested in his next book release than any of his family.

The first thing that struck me was Benjie’s revolting language for a child. He’s supposed to be 13 in the film, but he looks so much younger. It’s a very convincing portrayal of a child who has received too much, too young. Cronenberg puts you deeply into the lives of these characters. You see them in the bath, on the toilet, at their highest and lowest ebbs.

As the plot progresses and things get more and more messed up. I began to question what the point of it all was. It’s like Cronenberg assembled these unlikeable characters, puts them all together, lights the touch paper and runs off. It can only end one way and it’s the opposite of that song by Yazz.

My favourite critic Mark Kermode laid into The Wolf of Wall Street, saying it was hard to like because he could not identify with the characters, with them being so unlikeable, that it’s not entertaining to watch rich people indulging in their wealth. I’d argue that at least The Wolf is entertaining for the whole film, with some great humour within the debauchery. Maps contains unpleasant characters doing unpleasant things and it makes for a difficult watch. There are glimmers of hope but that is all they are.

I’m at my last paragraph and I’m still not sure if I love or hate this film. Perhaps a film that has made me feel so ambivalent is good because at least it’s made me feel something. You can’t fault the performances. Maybe it’s too immersive for its own good, bearing in mind the events that occur.

I think it’s best for me to end by saying if you take the plunge, the film will linger with you for a long while afterwards.

Maps to the Stars is now showing in Liverpool at Picturehouse at FACT. For more information visit the following link: http://bit.ly/1uSt7Gz

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