HOTEL ARTEMIS
The Bad Karma Hospital
released OUT NOW! 15 | 94 minutes Director drew Pearce Cast Jodie Foster, sterling K Brown, dave Bautista, sofia Boutella
Most first-time directors would kill to have a cast half as good as the one Drew Pearce assembled for Hotel Artemis. That said, having writing credits on the likes of Iron Man 3 and Mission: Impossible 5 is always going to put you at something of an advantage, contacts book-wise – it’s not like he landed in Hollywood yesterday.
The big names aren’t just window-dressing, however, because this is a film constructed to make the most of its star power; a dark, stylish crime thriller with a subtle but effective sci-fi edge. The ever-watchable Jodie Foster (in her first big-screen outing since 2013’s Elysium) plays the Nurse, manager and chief physician at the titular establishment. The Artemis is less hotel than hospital, a private members club where criminals go to get patched up away from the prying eyes of the authorities. It’s an arrangement that’s apparently run flawlessly for decades, until the arrival of some unexpected guests sets in motion a night of epic carnage...
Beyond the sci-fi veneer – the film’s set in the Los Angeles of 2028, where water shortages are causing city-crippling riots and medical tech is more Star Trek: The Next Generation than ER – Hotel Artemis is an unashamedly Tarantino-esque affair. It has an eclectic retro soundtrack; the hotel “guests” have Reservoir Dogs-like aliases; there’s plenty of violence; and, most importantly, it revels in its characters having conversations – when Foster, Sofia Boutella, Sterling K Brown, Jeff Goldblum and the rest go to work, the set-pieces are more verbal than physical.
Yet despite the style, the evocative faded glamour of the Artemis, and the tightness of the one-night/one-location structure, there’s still something missing. There isn’t quite enough plot to keep up the momentum throughout the lean running time, while the efforts to give the Nurse a backstory make her a rather less intriguing character. A solid rather than spectacular debut. Richard Edwards
One of Drew Pearce’s first Hollywood gigs was writing a (later abandoned) TV version of Marvel’s Runaways.