Maps to the Stars

In Maps to the Stars, a fractured Hollywood clan clings to fame like a lifeline, each member chasing recognition while haunted by unresolved pasts. Havana Segrand, a veteran actress desperate for a comeback, fights to keep her status while younger rivals circle. Agatha Weiss returns to Hollywood with a guarded, calculating resolve that unsettles everyone she encounters. Jerome Fontana, an aspiring actor navigating the glitter and grit of show business, becomes a pawn in the city’s power games. As the Weiss family confronts its dysfunction, the film exposes how ambition feeds on wounded egos and manufactured myths in a town built on illusion. The film maps a web of encounters at studios, parties, and rehab clinics, building a mosaic of the town's cycle of ambition. It sets up a satire that feels pointed yet personal.

Directed by David Cronenberg from Bruce Wagner's screenplay, Maps to the Stars was released in 2014 as a savage satire of Hollywood. The production blends Cronenberg's clinical tone with Wagner's caustic humor to sharpen the city's portrait.

Across its sequences the film sparked discussions about fame as a currency that consumes relationships and ethics. The performances, especially Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska, were debated for their fearless takes on vanity, cruelty, and reinvention. The movie lingered in conversations about contemporary show business.

Critics described the tone as unapologetically sharp and unflinching, focusing on how media, money, and parental ambition corrode intimacy. Its central themes include the allure of celebrity, the pressures of legacy, and the moral costs of pursuing image over substance. Cronenberg maintains a steady focus on character pain beneath glossy surfaces.

No major awards or wide nominations followed Maps to the Stars. It challenged conventional prestige curves and divided critics, standing as a provocative snapshot of Hollywood more than a conventional awards magnet.