'Hotel Artemis' Review

Hotel Artemis is a movie that I was pretty confident that I would enjoy. Everything about it is right up my alley. Neo-noir dystopian future? Check. Hyper-violent action scenes? Check. Goldblum? You betcha. Thankfully my high expectations din't lead to disappointment because Hotel Artemis is great.

Set in 2028 Los Angeles, where society has been torn apart by riots and street violence, we follow the story of 'The Nurse' (Foster), whom, with the help of her man mountain orderly Everest (Bautista) runs the 'Hotel Artemis' - a secret, members only emergency room for criminals. Tensions start to rise as the patients begin to rub each other the wrong way, threatening to break the rules that the establishment is based upon. The situation reaches boiling point when news that the infamous Wolf King of LA (Goldblum) is on his way. 

The cast of this film is absolutely stacked, and the interplay between them is one of the film's strong points. The differing personalities of Charlie Day's obnoxious arms dealer, Sofia Boutella's cold hearted assassin and Sterling K. Brown's calculated bank robber bounce of each other really well and lead to some humourus yet tense interactions. They all have different agendas, not all of which are going to allow for overlap. Jeff Goldblum is suitably menacing and unhinged as the apparent big bad. Dave Bautista is ever present and as usual he is responsible for most of the film's biggest laughs. 

The crowning jewel, though, is Jodie Foster, who is truly outstanding. Beneath the hard exterior shell that she portrays to her patients (she greets most of the terrible events that come her way with flippancy - 'Just another Wednesday'), is a fragile, vulnerable old lady who has been through immense tragedy and become tied to the hotel herself as though it's a part of her. There is huge pathos associated with her character and Foster convey's it perfectly. You can sense the weight of responsibility upon her. Even when surrounded by some truly awful people, her willingness to help people is rock solid, which further endears us to her. Her performance really elevates this movie, and she fells like the linchpin that holds the whole thing together. 

The action throughout is also strong. We get brief glimpses of extremely visceral violence, but most set pieces are stylised and almost cartoonish. They're not edited as well as some other examples of modern fight scenes, but the idea of cramming such dangerous people in such a confined space adds another element to the stakes and the impact of the action. In fact, the Hotel itself is just as important as it's inhabitants. The blood stained cushions and rickety elevator feel a thousand miles away from the high tech world outside, but this only adds to the intrigue and mystery about the screws the hotel is hiding. 

I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately, but this is yet another impressive directorial debut, this time from Drew Pearce. Hotel Artemis is a stylish, uber-violent action film, which main strength lies within the interactions of the stellar cast, anchored by an excellent performance from Jodie Foster.

4/5 Stars


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