Film Review: Hotel Artemis

Hotel Artemis, written and directed by Drew Pearce, is a crime thriller set against the backdrop of violent and destructive riots in not-so-distant-future Los Angeles. The events of the film are kicked off by a failed bank robbery by a group of criminals including two brothers played by Sterling K. Brown and Brian Tyree Henry (who is having quite a moment right now and is perhaps better known as Paper Boi from the show Atlanta, and who also has a role in the upcoming Steve McQueen film, Widows). Wounded during their attempted robbery, the brothers make their way to the Hotel Artemis, a secret hospital that treats wounded criminals (The hotel’s guests are referred to only by their room names throughout the film, so Brown’s character is referred to as Waikiki and Henry’s character is dubbed Honolulu). Once inside the hotel, patients are cared for by the high strung, agoraphobic nurse (who is referred to only as “the nurse”) played by a nearly unrecognizable Jodie Foster, and her loyal orderly, Everest (Dave Bautista).

Mild spoilers past this point

My main critique of this film is that many of the characters lack chemistry with one another. Waikiki and another guest, Nice (played by Sofia Boutella, an actress with whom I am admittedly quite smitten) have some kind of romantic past, but their relationship comes across more as that of two co-workers who have nice banter and a friendly relationship, and it likely would have been more believable that way. I just wasn’t buying the romance. I also think that the brother relationship between Waikiki and Honolulu lacked chemistry at times. Waikiki’s motivation for arriving to and then remaining at the Hotel Artemis is to ensure the safety of his brother, but Waikiki spends the majority of the film roaming the halls of the hotel, therefore the relationship between the characters really doesn’t get the amount of attention that it needs in order to make Waikiki’s motivations believable. At best the relationship between the two men resembles something closer to (we’re going to stick with the workplace metaphor) two work acquaintances; Waikiki works on the second floor, Honolulu works on the third floor but they regularly see each other in the cafeteria so they’ve at least been in the same room at the same time. What I’m trying to say is that Waikiki definitely doesn’t want Honolulu to die, but once he does (literally anyone could have predicted that, don’t kid yourself. I’d have been more shocked if he had lived) I can’t bring myself to believe that he would feel more than a little bummed about it. Should he be devastated? I don’t think so (we don’t even see him shed a tear). Should he be sad enough to want to kill the woman he supposedly loves? Nah (or maybe so since I’m convinced they’re work buds at most, but what do I know).

Not all of the relationships are so strained though. Charlie Day plays Acapulco, an extremely obnoxious arms dealer with a chip on his shoulder (for some reason? No exaggeration, he’s like super irritated the entire movie but I genuinely have no idea why. I was waiting for him to take a chill pill at some point but he never does, it’s exhausting… Oh wait, he does a line of coke like the very first time we see him. Maybe that explains it. Alright, mystery solved I guess.) who does have rather good banter with Boutella’s character, and when the pair is together on screen are the only times Day’s character is tolerable (though not really then either). I also really enjoyed the relationship between the nurse and Everest. They have a well-established friendship and Everest is fiercely loyal to and protective of the nurse, who in turn relies very heavily on Everest, the only person she really trusts.

I would have liked a bit more grit and a lot more action from the film, which was filled with talented actors (Jeff Goldblum and Zachary Quinto round out the star-studded cast as a widely feared crime boss and his son respectively), who really weren’t given enough to do. Boutella, in particular, who is known for her fantastic combat sequences (see: Kingsmen: The Secret Service, Star Trek: Beyond, or Atomic Blonde,), does have one impressive fight scene near the end of the movie, but it was mostly a reminder of the stark lack of action throughout the rest of the film, save for a very brief pocket or two of shootouts and takedowns. Brown has a short-lived standoff against police early in the story which sets an impressive precedent and establishes Brown as a convincing mercenary, but there isn’t really a great effort made on the director’s part to follow up on this particular skillset (save for a few additional, equally as short-lived fight sequences).

TL;DR: Hotel Artemis suffers from a lack of chemistry between some of the characters and could definitely stand to amp up the action but, it isn’t a bad film. A trip to the theater to see this film would be a fine way to spend a weekday evening, especially for lovers of crime films, as long as audiences remember not to expect too much. But if you would rather wait for it to appear in a Redbox or onDemand (if that’s how you choose to rent your films), you certainly wouldn’t be missing out on the next big hit. 

Image Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5834262/