Another look at Sleazywood: David Cronenberg and Bruce Wagner's louche MAPS TO THE STARS

Does anyone have a more jaundiced, delightfully despicable view of Hollywood and its dank denizens than writer Bruce Wagner (shown below)? From his comic Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills to the masterful I'm Losing You (novel and film) to this latest lollapalooza -- MAPS TO THE STARS -- Wagner shows us la-la-land with an incredible blend of black humor and rapier wit tempered with just a dash of feeling so that we can't quite dismiss his nasty satire out of hand. To bring to fruition his latest foray into our narcissistic depths, he's landed David Cronenberg, shown above (or maybe to the right), to direct, and the combo turns out to be a marriage made in an absolutely heavenly hell.

Maps to the Stars begins rather quietly, if bizarrely, for we haven't yet understood the depths to which the characters we're meeting will soon sink -- how their insatiable need for constant acknowledgment and fame outdoes any human instinct they might have once possessed. Yet so interesting and strange seem all the people we encounter that we're hooked from scene one.

Mr Wagner's dialog definitely helps. Notes one character early on: "I met the Dalai Lama! He's the kind of guy you just want to hang with. But you can't. Because he's, like, you know, the Dalai Lama."

It isn't long, however, before the characters we're laughing at and with turn darker, nastier. Darkest of all and the woman we probably get to know best is the famous actress named Havana Segrand (played by last night's Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, shown above and below, right).

Also proving a strange character we learn to care about (and become a bit frightened of, as well) is Agatha Weiss (Mia Wasikowska, above, left and below). Agatha, who now possess an unsightly scarred body and face, is the daughter of a famous self-help guru, Standford Weiss, who serves the Hollywood set and is played with his usual panache by John Cusack (shown in the penultimate photo), who seems to be taking to darker roles like that proverbial duck to water.

Into Agatha's life also comes a handsome chauffeur-cum-screenwriter, played well by Robert Pattinson, below, who has by now thankfully gotten that stupid-but-successful Twilight series out of his system and can move on to roles that call for some actual acting. He's the character through whom we see much of what is happening (and is said to be based upon Wagner's own early Hollywood history).

The Weiss family also includes a mother, played with rigid intensity by the fine Olivia Williams, and a drug-addled TV-actor son, Benji, whose name and interaction with a dog should bring to mind a certain (in)famous series of animal movies. As played by the terrific and creepy Evan Bird, below, Benji complete this family of would-be Hollywood royalty, a matched set of major nut-jobs.

That Weiss family dances with and around our gal Havana, who pretty much rules the movie in the same manner as she does her retinue. There is a particular scene -- between Ms Moore and another actress playing an actress (Jennifer Gibson) on a Beverly Hills sidewalk outside one or another swank shop -- so perfectly on the mark and full of friendly sweetness masking outright hatred that it becomes an instant classic. The interaction demonstrates to a "t" how Hollywood folk are never scarier than when they're being "nice."

Ms Moore -- always a great actress who rarely makes a misstep or chooses a project that is not worthwhile -- is so very fine in this rich, rabid role that she actually makes what happens to her character somehow enjoyable. And that is indeed what they call "going some."

Well, that's Mr. Wagner for you. He turns us all into the kind of people who can take schadenfreude to unspeakable new heights. Or, rather, depths. "Juicy" does not begin to describe this amazing film.

Maps to the Stars -- from Focus Features and running 111 minutes -- opens theatrically this Friday, February 27, in various locales.

Here in the NYC area, it'll play at Manhattan's IFC Center, the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn and the Kew Gardens Cinema in Queens. In the L.A. area, look for it at the Sundance Sunset Cinema, and at Laemmle's Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and their NoHo 7 in North Hollywood. Elsewhere? Maybe, and if I can find a link to playdates, I'll post it later....

Winterbottom's THE TRIP: major laughs from Coogan, Brydon and... Michael Caine

Michael Caine? Not really. Caine comes out of the two stars of Michael Winterbottom's very funny new movie THE  TRIP.  (A director not known for humor, Winterbottom has made, out of more than 20 films in 20 years, only two that you could call comedies.) His stars in this film, however, are Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, and both do such fab impressions of this great British actor that you'd swear he was there. (Caine, who loves movies, will certainly see this one, and I would expect that he'll be laughing right along with the rest of the audience.)

Mr. Winterbottom (shown at right) is taking, I should think, some sort of vacation with his new movie, which is itself a kind of vacation in which two buddies (I use that last word loosely) tour the Brit hinterlands reviewing restaurants and one-upping each other regarding their superlative impressions of various movie people. Competition and the male ego have rarely been shown to such disadvantage (for the owners) and such amusement (for the audience). These two "mates" are also, more often than not, unemployed actors -- with (as in real life, one suspects) Coogan the more oft-employed and Brydon, the not-quite-there-yet.

Does anyone preen as nastily -- at the same time pretending not to -- as Coogan (above, right)? Doubtful. This guy excels at playing pigs of major proportions. And Brydon, above, left, as the lap dog trying desperately to be the Great Dane, proves the perfect foil.

While the film makes great fun of haute cuisine, foodies and cell-phone unavail-ability (left), it is mostly an insider's movie. From its Ben Stiller fantasy to Coogan's agent to those near- constant impressions (there are some very good ones of Woody Allen), the movie's so chock-a-block with sophistica-ted and/or work-related references that non-film-buffs had best stay away, for they'll probably sit in stony silence wondering what all the laughter is about. 

We also get some crackerjack scenery, The Winner Takes It All, and more impressions. At 107 minutes, the movie's too long. It could easily lose 15 of these, but I suspect everyone was having too good a time to yell "cut!" What about later, in the editing room? My theory is that perhaps there was still so much laughter that, well, they kept in damn near everything.

Still, you really do get the sense that these two guys enjoy each other's company immensely. And we enjoy theirs. Just maybe not quite so much of them. The Trip, from IFC Films, opens this Friday. June 10, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the IFC Center. It'll play elsewhere, I am sure, and then on June 22, as happens with so many IFC movies, you can get it via VOD.

The Craig McCall-Jack Cardiff CAMERAMAN: You'll want to see ALL those movies again

An absolute feast for film buffs, CAMERAMAN: The Life & Work of Jack Cardiff -- the new documentary from Craig McCall about the famous British cinematographer and director -- should have you champing at the bit to get home and delve into many, maybe all, of the films of this amazing guy. TrustMovies has seen most of these already. Even so, after viewing this terrific documentary, with its emphasis on the why and how of Cardiff's glorious work, he was more than ready to watch them all again -- this time with renewed eye and mind.

Mr. McCall, shown at left, is interested in the work life, rather than the personal life, of his subject, so we learn precious little gossip fodder. Just as well. There is so much to see and learn about Cardiff's work in films, and about the films themselves, that not one moment of this 90-minute movie is wasted. We're on the edge of our seat, drinking in every word and image. And -- gheesh! -- those images are keepers, while the array of films in which Cardiff was involved amazes.

What we see of films such as Black Narcissus (above), A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes (his work for Powell & Pressburger still stands as some of the best cinematography film has even given us) to lesser known but important milestones like Scott of the Anarctic and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman increases by miles our understanding of film history and the what/why/how of cinematography.

Cardiff reminisces about his mom and dad -- both actors -- and how they learned to scam the line for extra guineas at the end of the working day. He himself started out as a child actor until he got caught up -- quite early (see right) -- in his love affair with the cam-era, lighting and all else.

We hear from luminaries like Lauren Bacall, who talks of the filming of The African Queen); Scorsese (at bottom), post-stroke Kirk Douglas (in one of the most moving sections of the film), and we see (and hear) from Cardiff about his own photo collection of his favorites leading ladies (see below) -- from Ekberg to Loren to Hepburn (Audrey and Kate)

You'll come out of this movie renewed, invigorated and ready to rethink certain films like The Vikings, Legend of the Lost, even Rambo: First Blood Part Two.  (Well, maybe not that last one.) Still, Cardiff's career is amazing; he's worked on every kind of film you can imagine. Great thanks are owed McCall for going after the man and getting him to spill the "working" beans so brilliantly prior to his death in 2009 -- at the age of 94.

Cameraman, from Strand Releasing, opens this Friday, May 13, in New York City at the Quad Cinema, and in Los Angeles on June 3 at Laemmle's Music Hall. You can check out any further screenings, as they become known, here.