It seems strange that it’s taken David Cronenberg this long to shoot a movie in Los Angeles – or, for that matter, America. Still, better late than never. Maps To The Stars not only lands him in the heart of Hollywood, it sees him drive a great big stake through it. Arguably his best work since 2005’s , it’s a scabrous, satirical chomp on the hand that feeds – and, boy, is he hungry.

Maps nestles among the best showbiz sideswipes – from Vincente Minnelli’s to Robert Altman’s The Player . Indeed, it even surpasses the latter. Here, Hollywood is the backdrop to a monstrous, multiple-character study.

Leading the charge is the Weiss family, a shockingly dysfunctional clan comprising John Cusack’s life-guru Stafford, fragile wife Christina (Olivia Williams) and son Benjie (Evan Bird), a repugnant, rehab-occupying teen star who made his fortune in comedy series ‘Bad Babysitter’. Bird, best known for his role in the US remake of The Killing , is quite superb, channelling everyone from Macaulay Culkin to Justin Bieber as he delivers his lines with a warped sense of entitlement.

Yet there are others in this pit of vipers: has-been actress Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore), vying for a role in a remake of a film her actress-mother starred in. There’s Jerome (Robert Pattinson), a limo-driver with actor/screenwriter aspirations. And finally Agatha, a timid out-of-towner, played by Mia Wasikowska.

Carrying a noticeable scar on her flesh, Agatha arrives on a Greyhound bus, ostensibly to work for Carrie Fisher (the one star cameo), having met on Twitter. Soon enough, she’s Havana’s PA, becoming our guide to this selfish, survive-at-all-costs town, as the aforementioned all criss-cross, reeking of bitterness, desperation or self-interest.

Of all the performances, Moore is the stand-out (rightly claiming Cannes’ Best Actress). From an explicit threesome and a true moment of body horror to singing a Bananarama ditty when she finds out a rival actress has just suffered unbearable tragedy, Moore does nerveless, peerless work, eclipsing even some of the soul-baring she’s done for PT Anderson.

Detractors may carp that Cronenberg is showing us🔥 nothing new, but Maps is so flawless in its execution, it vividly refreshes thᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚe subject matter. Never overcooking the setting, it’s a story right in his wheelhouse; a very human look at characters barely clinging to their humanity. It’s horrific stuff, just as all the best Cronenberg movies are.