Let’s go to the Hotel Artemis. If you pay your membership and follow the rules, you can get fixed up without any hassle and be on your way. But like all great stories, it doesn’t exactly happen that way. This week, I had the chance to experience the Hotel Artemis and was immediately thrown into a futuristic noir setting that could easily be mistaken for a 1940’s detective movie, but with better technology. I honestly didn’t know what to make of this movie. It looked interesting, but something that I would have just watched on cable and never really given a second thought. But after visiting the Hotel Artemis, I honestly have to say that I really digged this movie.
The basic premise is you have a hotel where you could get black market medical services with no questions asked and it didn’t matter who you are as long as you pay your membership and you follow the rules. All of this set in a futuristic Los Angeles during riots. The movie almost have the same field as the first Blade Runner movie with how gritty and dirty everything seemed. But it was perfect at demonstrating the right feel for the movie. Now add the right cast of characters from a burnt-out nurse played by Jodie Foster who lost her license to a thief we just can’t get out of the game but will do anything for his brother. Then you have some kind of Black Market dealer with too much adrenaline played by Charlie Day, he was great by the way. A medical / security official played by David Bautista who probably had the best lines of the film. And then the gorgeous assassin played by Sophie Boutella. Jeff Goldblum was the surprise hit of this film who plays the Hyatt of a crime family and if you’re a fan of Jeff Goldblum which you should be cuz usually has some of the greatest lines in movies then you will certainly like him here as he ads Gravitas to the Hotel Artemis.
It’s not hard to figure out that everything will go wrong and the perfect balance to the hotel will be upset because the rules get broken. But what makes this film fun to watch is all of the out of sorts cast characters that make up the hotel. The film isn’t perfect, but it is a lot of fun. The style alone makes this an interesting film to watch, but it’s the action with the great one-liners that make up the heart of the film. There’s a couple of subplots that really add to the overall story because everybody is bringing their own individual story to the Hotel Artemis in the movie. And it’s about how all those stories intertwine with one another. I feel like that if you did not have the noir feeling within the movie then there wouldn’t be any heart to the film, it would have largely been forgettable. Plus when you add a pretty good soundtrack that just seems to fit the movie, it makes it even better.
The only things that really bother me about this movie was some of the pacing issues. There are times that it’s trying to slowly draw you in, which works and then times that it moves too fast and you don’t really know what’s going on. It helps to have a good backstory, but the only thing you really find out about these characters is through conversation. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes you just need some flashbacks and while there are a couple of flashbacks, I feel like it’s not enough to help explain who all of these characters are and how they know each other. One of the main issues is really not knowing enough about Jeff Goldblum’s character, simply known as The Wolf. We’re supposed to be afraid of him, but don’t really know enough that would make us afraid. Mystery surrounding characters is a good thing and usually makes us more curious or more afraid of them, but I feel like in this case especially with Jeff Goldblum playing the character there just wasn’t enough to make me fear him.
But overall Hotel Artemis is a good movie, it is worth checking out. I was pleasantly surprised by how good Hotel Artemis is and how much I want to see it again. From the Noir Style to a great soundtrack to a great cast…this movie had everything you could ask for… action, comedy, And a thrilling story. It’s like one of those films that you can’t stop looking away, keeps you curious right up until the very end. Hotel Artemis was like hearing stories of the Chelsea Hotel in New York where everything is so unbelievable, but you want to know more. It may just be a one-time or for some, but it’s something that I would definitely watch again and I would even pay a full price movie ticket to see it again. Hotel Artemis is worth checking out. And to be honest, this is something that could be a series…week to week episodes with adventures from the underworld of society. Hotel Artemis has the makings of being a cult favorite. And everybody in the film was great… sometimes films can get it right and just be have the perfect cast!
