Tuesday’s Top Trailer: Maps to the Stars

Welcome back to a weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Tuesday's Top Trailer. One of my favorite parts about going to see movies is the series of trailers that airs beforehand and, more often than not, the trailer is far better than the actual film. Each week, I'll be sharing a trailer I've recently seen. Please chime in with comments on what you think of the trailer and how you think the movie is going to be.

Maps to the Stars – Opening September 2014

I hadn’t heard anything about this film, which was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and won Julianne Moore the Best Actress prize, prior to watching the trailer, which was featured on the IMDB home page. David Cronenberg is a director known for head trips, and this appears to very much be that. I never got around to seeing “Cosmopolis,” his last feature, but I did see his Viggo Mortensen trilogy before that – “A Dangerous Method,” “Eastern Promises,” and “A History of Violence,” three affecting films about seriously disturbed people. This looks to be a combination of those ensemble narratives and the truly wild and weird nature of a film like “Spider” with Ralph Fiennes. The cast is stacked, to say the least, with Julianne Moore in what appears to be one of the meatiest roles she’s had in a while in the lead. John Cusack has had a variety of parts in recent years, and it’s hard to tell if this will be a dramatic breakthrough for him. I’m glad to see Mia Wasikowska taking on another challenging – and seemingly creepy – character, and Robert Pattinson is back for his second consecutive Cronenberg acting to show that “Twilight” doesn’t define his acting abilities. Add in Olivia Williams to the supporting cast and it’s sure to be a very watchable film. Examining Hollywood and celebrity life will definitely be insightful, and a cast like this might just enable Cronenberg to cross over to the mainstream again.