Review of Maps to the Stars (2014) by Dierregi — 27 Feb 2015

This is the story of a bunch of creeps, Hollywood-style. If you can sympathise with the following characters, you probably will like the movie:

*Benji, ex-junkie teenager TV show star, jealous about child actors; *Cristina and Stafford, couple of weirdos parents, exploiting said teenage junkie; *Agatha, homicidal schizophrenic girl stalking her family; *Havana, washed up movie actress consumed by the desire of playing her mother's part in a remake.

On the other hand, if you think that the rich are different from you and I and you find it difficult to feel empathy for a "poor" kid who will earn only 6 million per season instead of 8, you might not get the point of this flaccid tale. Unless that is "even rich people have their problems".

If emotional engagement is not your thing, you might still have problems with the script and editing. The movie contains several overlong scenes that add nothing to story, except underlining how depraved people are in Hollywood. The party scene, with the despicable conversation among teenagers is a very good example.

Then there is a scene with Havana, the Moore character, sitting on the crapper and farting away, while having a conversation with her assistant. This is usually described as "vanity-free" interpretation by the critics. Which means Hollywood stars looking like you and me in the morning, rather than their red-carpet version. In turn, this is interpreted as "mega-stars demeaning their supernatural status, thus deserving an Oscar".

Finally, several "ghost scenes" are scattered liberally in the story. They are among the worst I have ever seen, Havana's ghost mum being the most risible of the bunch.

Eventually bad things happen to bad people and the movie ends not a second too soon, but who cares: this is a movie –as somebody wrote – that you want to forget you saw.