QR Film Review: Hotel Artemis
Hotel Artemis is the dystopian sci-fi thriller from first-time director Drew Pearce, and while the world and characters of Pearce’s secret criminal hospital are fascinating and masterfully built, the story in which they feature is a very frustrating affair.
Hotel Artemis tells the story of the eponymous ‘members-only’ hospital for criminals in 2028 Los Angeles. The ominously titled Nurse (Jodie Foster) runs the facility with the help of her orderly and enforcer Everest (Dave Bautista). During a night of riots in LA, she welcomes a number of criminals known simply by their room names. The guests for the night include Acapulco (Charlie Day), an eccentric arms dealer seeking to flee the chaotic city, Nice (Sofia Boutella), a glamorous assassin pursuing an elusive target and Waikiki & Honolulu (Sterling K Brown and Brian Tyree Henry, respectively), two brothers fleeing a botched bank robbery. Furthermore, the Artemis’ owner and dangerous crime lord, the Wolf King of LA (Jeff Goldblum) is in need of emergency treatment.
Pearce has collated a pitch-perfect, star-studded cast who seamlessly slip into the dystopian world of the film. Jodie Foster is the heart of the film, an excellent performance which conveys her tough exterior built on an enormous sadness. Foster delivers a wide ranging performance, from frail nurse trapped in her own hospital by her agoraphobia and her past, to a vengeful force of nature seeking revenge. Brown, headlining his first big Hollywood film after a small role in Black Panther is also excellent. He similarly delivers a hard, yet emotional performance acting as an audience stand-in of sorts, our tour guide to the world of the Artemis. As with most of the film’s relationships however, the dynamic between Honolulu & Waikiki is never fully explored.
The remainder of the principal cast are interesting and entertaining, with Everest (Bautista) acting as excellent comedic relief and featuring in some exciting, if somewhat limited, action sequences toward the end. Boutella as the glamorous assassin is pitch-perfect and the allusions to a history with Honolulu adds an extra layer of intrigue to her character. The intricate action set-piece she features in is also one of the film’s highlights. The remaining cast members thrive on Pearce’s excellent script and character work in order to deliver intriguing performances.
Despite these strong characters, it is the intricate world Pearce has constructed around them which is the true star of the film. Pearce has spoken in interviews of wanting to create a film with his own fingerprints and style. This is evident throughout Hotel Artemis. The world feels truly alive and lived in, the decaying walls of the hotel evoke images of a once luxurious L.A. hotel which has decayed into its current state, the riots and news reports show a world which is dystopian and futuristic, yet feasible and realistic. The finer points of the world, such as a 3D organ printer, strict rules which would be required to govern such a facility and a cast of characters each fleshed out with their own agendas and motives, all work to create a place which truly feels alive.
A casualty of this masterful world building is the film’s pacing and plot. The story slowly builds and establishes several interesting Hitchcockian conflicts which could have been drawn out and squeezed for suspense and tension. Instead, around the halfway point the story rockets toward an ending and doesn’t let up. Where in the film’s early stage relationships, allegiances and tensions were teased out of each confrontation and interaction, the latter scenes shoe horn in expository backstories and forced confrontations which rob the film of much of its suspense in favour of getting to the end as soon as possible. Nowhere is this more evident than when looking at how Jeff Goldblum’s character, the feared crime boss who owns the Artemis, factors into the plot. Despite being promoted as one of the marquee stars of the film and being teased and built up for the first two thirds of the run time his character is never truly given a chance to breathe and live up to the loft expectations around him – this is exceptionally disappointing given that the few moments we do see are fantastic.
The film as a whole is an exciting and interesting story. Pearce has built a fascinating world and populated it with interesting characters and is one of the more recent Hollywood success stories. His scripts for Iron Man 3 and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation demonstrate an ability to construct exciting and thrilling big blockbusters which also feature their own independent heart and personality. In Hotel Artemis he seeks to craft a story and world all his own in his directorial debut. Pearce’s love for classic cinema bleeds through the pores of the Artemis and the simple suspenseful plot shows this in spades. It is unfortunate then the latter half of the film feels rushed and squanders much of the suspense so carefully built in the film’s earlier moments.
However, I wholeheartedly recommend a trip to the Hotel Artemis; the world and characters Pearce has built are something to be experience. The rushed second half of the film is frustrating but shows what Pearce is capable of when allowed to craft a world all his own. Despite this, the film is saved by a strong ending, fascinating world, and interesting characters. There are also allusions to a sequel, and a potential return to the Artemis would be more than welcome.
4/5 Stars
Hotel Artemis was released on Friday July 20th and is in Cinemas Now!
By Sean Hughes