Film Preview: Maps to the Stars (2015)

Poster

Poster #1

Additional posters can be found below.

Trailer Link

Release Date:

February 27, 2015

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “A tour into the heart of a Hollywood family chasing celebrity, one another and the relentless ghosts of their pasts.”

Poster: A- / C / C+ / B- / B- / D / C

Review: (#1) A blend of several past inspirations, this carefully crafted noir-esque design makes for a fascinating viewing opportunity. (#2) Minorly interesting, but ultimately dull. (#3) A slight improvement over poster #3, but still lacking thrills. (#4) I’ll give this one a bit of credit for at least being clever even if the design isn’t that visually compelling.

(#5) An interesting series of visual inserts into the back side of the legendary “Hollywood” sign, but still lacking visual excitement. (#6) This one isn’t really trying, though it may mean a lot more to the foreign market for which it’s destined than it does here. (#7) Putting your hands in the concrete at Grauman’s used to be a popular tradition, but today it’s less familiar to a lot of audiences making this fascinating in relation to the film, but ultimately forgettable.

Trailer: B

Review: For the love of Julianne Moore, the trailer looks thoroughly fascinating. It hits a lot of ratcheting beats that keep the thriller bustling even if it lacks the spark necessary to make it a mass audience hit.

Oscar Prospects:

Julianne Moore is said to give a brilliant performance, but the film is said to be one that will easily turn voters off. My suspicion is that she’ll fail to register with Oscar unless the critics pick her up at year’s end.