Maps to the Stars

“Eventually stars burn out.”

Agatha Weiss (Mia Wasikowska) steps off a bus into Los Angeles, a burn-scarred young woman who has been away from her family for years. Her return reaches a Hollywood household where Dr. Stafford Weiss (John Cusack) runs a self-help empire and his son Benjie is a child star. David Cronenberg treats fame as a thing these people need the way they need air, and nobody in the film breathes easily.