Review: Hotel Artemis

June 21, 2018. A riot rages throughout in Los Angeles. It may be a dangerous jungle out there but, for Jean "the Nurse" Thomas, it's "just another Wednesday night" in the Hotel Artemis, a secret hotel/hospital that only caters to criminals.

Run by Thomas since its creation 22 years ago, the art deco hideout would seem an expanded offshoot of John Wick's Continental Hotel, seedier but with an equally strict set of rules. Already ensconced in its quarters are the misogynistic and racist arms dealer Acapulco (all guests are given code names), screechingly played as per usual by Charlie Day, and sexy assassin Nice (a smouldering Sofia Boutella). Just arrived are Waikiki (Sterling K. Brown) and his brother Honolulu (Brian Tyree Henry), who was heavily wounded following a botched bank robbery. On his way is the Wolf King (Jeff Goldblum), a feared criminal kingpin who rules the city and owns the Artemis. Complicating matters is the appearance of Morgan (Jenny Slate), an injured police officer with whom Thomas has a personal connection.

With that cast and a relatively intriguing premise, one would think that Hotel Artemis would be something worth your while. Yet this is a film in which the individual parts are often better than the whole. It's interesting, for example, to see Foster share scenes with Dave Bautista as her aptly named assistant, Everest, or with Goldblum, who is never not a delight. Boutella and Bautista's respective showdowns with the Wolf King's crew near the end provide the film with the jolt of energy it sorely needs. Writer-director Drew Pearce would have been wise to prune and focus his narrative, particularly on its most interesting strand, which also happens to feature the film's most compelling players. As possible ex-lovers Waikiki and Nice, Brown and Boutella have a chemistry that could have been better exploited, especially once Nice reveals that she has deliberately checked herself into the hotel in order to be closer to her assigned target, the Wolf King.

Pearce obviously has a lot of ideas and can capably construct a film, but he seems far too in love with his creation to see how the atmospherics and visual flourishes are masking thinly drawn characters and a shaky plot. Or perhaps he is aware of his screenplay's inadequacies and is using his direction to distract from it. Either way, the film gives off a general aura of purposelessness and wastes its cast.

Hotel Artemis

Directed by: Drew Pearce

Written by: Drew Pearce

Starring: Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Tyree Henry, Jenny Slate, Zachary Quinto, Charlie Day, Dave Bautista, Kenneth Choi