Driven by an intense need for fame and validation, members of a dysfunctional Hollywood family chase celebrity, one another, and the relentless ghosts of their pasts. Their fragile ecosystem is disrupted by the arrival of Agatha, the scarred and estranged pyromaniac daughter.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.7/10
IMDb: 6.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 63%
Metacritic: 68
TMDB: 6.2/10
Director
David Cronenberg
Production
Prospero Pictures, Sentient Entertainment, SBS Productions, Integral Film
Cast
Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson, John Cusack, Evan Bird, Olivia Williams, Sarah Gadon, Kiara Glasco, Dawn Greenhalgh, Jonathan Watton, Carrie Fisher, Jennifer Gibson, Gord Rand, Justin Kelly, Niamh Wilson, Clara Pasieka, Emilia McCarthy, Allegra Fulton, Domenic Ricci, Jayne Heitmeyer
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, chilly Hollywood satire that turns celebrity culture into a family curse. It’s uneven in places, but the performances, mean streak, and grotesque emotional logic make it memorable for viewers who like their dramas unsettling and self-aware.
Best for
David Cronenberg fans
viewers who enjoy dark Hollywood satire
audiences drawn to psychological dysfunction and taboo family dynamics
fans of icy, abrasive ensemble dramas
people who like prestige performances in morally rotten worlds
Skip if
you want a warm or uplifting drama
you dislike satire that feels intentionally cruel and alienating
you need a tightly plotted, emotionally straightforward story
you are put off by incest themes, abuse, and severe family pathology
Overview
Maps to the Stars is one of those Hollywood movies that looks at fame as a disease and then refuses to offer a cure. It’s less interested in insider jokes than in the psychic damage underneath the industry’s glamour, where validation, inheritance, and resentment all collapse into the same wound.
Worth noting
Cronenberg keeps the tone cold and clinical, which makes the film’s ugliness feel deliberate rather than merely sensational. The satire can be blunt, but the performances give it bite, especially in the way each character seems trapped inside a private delusion about success, purity, or destiny.
Bottom line
It won’t work for everyone: the movie is abrasive, emotionally punishing, and often more fascinating than pleasurable. But if you like your dramas poisoned by black comedy and moral rot, it’s a strong watch with a distinct, nasty flavor.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Stankshadow (3★) · 1715 likes
The next David Cronenberg and Robert Pattinson film will be about Pattinson slowly turning into a limousine. It will be the third and final film in their Limousine Trilogy.
davidehrlich (3.5★) · 1202 likes
los angeles seems like a nice place.
Matt Singer (3★) · 1074 likes
It took two viewings and a two hour discussion to get there, but I'm starting to come around on this movie. It's essentially the incestuous offspring of VIDEODROME and THE BROOD; all child abuse, crackpot therapists, and show business as a sexually transmitted disease. Some have complained that its Hollywood satire feels a little hackneyed -- and they're not wrong. Ultimately, though, that vague sense of staleness fits within MAPS TO THE STARS' suggestion that Hollywood is defined by its… more It took two viewings and a two hour discussion to get there, but I'm starting to come around on this movie. It's essentially the incestuous offspring of VIDEODROME and THE BROOD; all child abuse, crackpot therapists, and show business as a sexually transmitted disease. Some have complained that its Hollywood satire feels a little hackneyed -- and they're not wrong. Ultimately, though, that vague sense of staleness fits within MAPS TO THE STARS' suggestion that Hollywood is defined by its… more
ivy wolk · 725 likes
this is Mullholland Drive for perverts
Will Menaker (4.5★) · 675 likes
Who’d have guessed that the Cronenberg movie with most grotesquely mutated human beings is the one where Carrie Fisher plays herself?
Here, celebrities are our modern Greek gods, and as such are all born of incest and fated to fuck and murder each other for our entertainment. A truly mean and upsetting movie that manages to be deeply moving and compassionate. Also, Julianne Moore is one of our most goated actors.
On health regained
On risk that is no more… more