Maps to the Stars
Director: David Cronenberg
Talent: Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson
Release Date: 26th September 2014
David Cronenberg fell off so long ago that he no longer even knows what it feels like to be on top. Maps to the Stars is another testament to the decline of a once visionary director, now reduced to the sub-literate and unambitious pastiching of Paul Schrader’s (disastrous) The Canyons, Richard Kelly’s (magnificent) Southland Tales and Todd Solondz’ general, career-spanning detachment and cruelty, shot through with neo-mythological pretensions and the recurring, misapprehended notion that “naughty” celebrity name-dropping is inherently funny (Demi Lovato in rehab, ha ha!). Evan Bird nails it as Benjie Weiss, a Bieber-esque, foul-mouthed child star, but his performance constitutes the only saving grace in a film whose cynicism is so skin-deep that its identikit “shock” moments feel barely earned, post mortem spasms from the career of a filmmaker who lost the right to be taken seriously a long time ago.
Words: Oisín Murphy-Hall
