Hotel Artemis
released 2018
www.ink2quill.com

“Hotel Artemis” is an American action, scifi, cyberpunk, thriller produced by Drew Pearce, Adam Siegel, Marc Platt, Stephen Cornwell and Simon Cornwell. It was written, directed and co produced by Drew Pearce and stars a talented cast of Hollywood stars that include Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Tyree Henry, Jenny Slate, Zachary Quinto, Charlie Day, Dave Bautista, Kenneth Choi, Josh Tillman, Father John Misty, Evan Jones, Nathan Davis Jr., Ramses Jimenez, Angela Sprinkle, Lloyd Sherr, Baldeep Singh, Brandon Morales, Tanner Gill, Bruce Concepcion, Travis Parker, Antal Kalik, Lauren Sivan, Sarah Shankman, Mark Kubr, Kate Higgins, Elizabeth Laime, Takahiro Fukuda and Fatimah Hassan among others.

Hotel Artemis IMDb webpage

Hotel Artemis Fandago webpage

Hotel Artemis Metacritic webpage

“Hotel Artemis” is the story of a nurse named Jean Thomas, played by Jodie Foster, who runs a private and secret and illegal clinic for criminals. I say that the clinic is illegal but things have degenerated so badly in this futuristic Los Angleles that it´s not so obvious, other than it is financed by the kingpin of crime who is a man named Niagara, played by Jeff Goldblum. The story takes place in a not too distant future Los Angeles that is plagued by drought and an economic system that has fallen apart. It is a city of rampant crime and riots where most of its citizens struggle to get the basic necessities in life and kind of live like rats. Crime might very well be the top career choice in this vision of the future. Jean is a talented nurse with an interesting past that includes the loss of her son.

This movie reminds me of stories of plagues and zombies where the characters must hide themselves and their existence behind stone walls from the outside world. I think of books like Albert Camus´s “The Plague” or the Edgar Allan Poe´s “Mask Of The Red Death”. In the case of “Hotel Artemis” the plague is not a sickness but economic collapse and crime pure and simple, but in all cases there is a serious moral crisis in the community. It´s an interesting story idea to have your neighbour become your enemy. For those that don´t know, Artemis was the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt, wild animals and the wilderness among other things. That makes Artemis a fitting name for the hotel. Don´t you think?

I liked the cast of this film. They really are a talented bunch and it´s the first time I´ve seen Jodie Foster in anything since that great movie she did named “Contact”. I liked the simplicity of this story and how it seems to allude to a possible sequel at the end. It would be interesting to see just how much deeper this future Los Angeles would sink. How much worse things would get.

“Hotel Artemis” is a good film that avoids any script exaggerations that so many action films suffer from. It has a great cast of actors. So check it out folks and enjoy!

John

 

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