Review of Maps to the Stars (2014) by Mandela W — 14 Aug 2016

Hollywood is one of the most legendary places in the world next to times square in New York. All kinds of stories and myths have come from here, good bad and ugly. Map of the Stars looks at the dark and twisted myth that some believe out in tinsel town.

The movie starts out with a girl named Agatha arriving in Hollywood she comes with the hopes of mending her relationship with her estranged family which includes her spoiled brat of a brother benji and budhhist father Stafford. Agatha in the meantime gets a job with failing actress Havana Segrand. The lives of all these individuals are explored in this dark tale directed by David Croneberg.

Its so relevant to everyone's dreams in cali and makes mentions of the biggest events and names in Hollywood such as the Oscars and Carrie fisher and many others. It gets dark pretty quick little disturbing at times too. It explores not only themes of darkness but also spirituality hence the use of Buddhist exericises, incantations and beliefs. Overall David Croneburg directing is incredible including with this shot selection. The music is really solid.

The acting was really good. Julianne moore goes out there for this role as havanna a washed up actress struggling to make it back to some level of success. Mia wasikowa is impressive here. she is becoming a real master at playing mysterious girls her acting ability is slowly catching my attention. Evan Bird actually ended up being a standout amongst this cast. He is very spoiled stuck up kid but he got some deep issues that relate to the bigger themes explored in this film.

It has quite the ending. Map to the stars is a really well crafted film that's worth checking out.