Maps To The Stars - 2014 - 6/10
What begins as a dish-the-dirt, Hollywood insider yarn veers into the realm of the preposterous.
Wayward daughter - onetime firebug - returns home after living in a “controlled environment” for a decade owing to a trifling incident with matches.
Brother is a successful actor, supposedly drug free, although he is insecure and suffers testosterone overload.
Dad writes crap books and coaches a fading actress whose mom perished in a fire.
Wait a minute! Could it be?
No, you’re only getting halfway in this over-the-top nonsense.
Talented cast (Julianne Moore, John Cusak, Mia Wasikowska ... ) backstabs, whines, begs, lies, and much worse in dreary puzzle spiral. Animal lovers - beware.
Creators ought to have let Robert Crumb write the draft. He would have gone full bore bonkers and this would have been entertainment sleaze, rather than seamy titillation.
Gives the feeling David Cronenberg still has ideas, but is running out of vocabulary to express them.
