HOTeL arTemis
Nursing a grudge
released OUT NOW! 2018 | 15 | Blu-ray/dVd/download
Director drew Pearce Cast Jodie Foster, sterling K Brown, sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum
Check in to Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce’s directorial debut and you’ll find its amenities are an immersive sense of place and a commanding central performance.
The titular setting of this cultish future noir is no Holiday Inn, but a bolt-hole where criminals can get patched up after being stabbed or shot. It has a staff of two: the anxiety-ridden Nurse (Jodie Foster), and her muscle Everest (Dave Bautista). Over a night of rioting, various ne’er-do-wells converge – a hitwoman, an arms dealer, two bank-robbing brothers, and the gangster who runs LA (as well as a female cop), with predictably messy results.
What with Jamie Lee Curtis toplining Halloween and Linda Hamilton returning to the Terminator franchise, things are looking increasingly positive for genre cinema’s veteran actresses – a welcome trend which Hotel Artemis continues. Acting older than her years, Foster nails both the pathos and the acerbic wit required as the wise-cracking yet haunted Nurse. And the hotel, with all its dingy faded glamour, looks stunning – impressive once you discover how much of it consists of one L-shaped corridor and two redressed rooms.
Many of the story threads have a familiar feel, though (the sight of Sofia Boutella’s assassin taking out goons feels like any number of Netflix-show corridor fights) and none of the characters’ fates proves all that surprising. Still, Pearce’s Shane Black-ian zingers, his eye for detail, and the amount he’s achieved with very little all suggest that he’s one to watch.
Extras Just a commentary by Pearce and a producer – but it’s very entertaining and insightful. Likeably self-deprecating, Pearce knows what you want to hear, revealing inspirations (Casablanca, Walter Hill), pointing out Easter eggs, and sharing some revolting rat-piss anecdotes… Ian Berriman
The nickname of Jeff Goldblum’s gangster, the Wolfking of LA, came from a solo LP by one of The Mamas & The Papas.