Set in a dystopian Los Angeles, amid “the worst riot in LA history”, this zippy sci-fi thriller traps Jodie Foster and co in an art deco hotel for 90 minutes. Someone’s head gets slammed in a 3-D printer and there’s a very tall bodyguard named Everest. So far, so good.
The Nurse (Foster) is an agoraphobic, whiskey-swigging doctor who runs Hotel Artemis, a members-only hospital for criminals. Guests must surrender their names at the door, going only by the names of the rooms they reside in, all brass and bronze and peeling, mint green walls.
“This is America; 85% of what I fix is bullet holes,” she croaks, fixing up a pair of thieving, bullet-ridden brothers Wakiki and Hawaii (Sterling K Brown and Brian Tyree Henry) after the latter stole a fountain pen containing $18m-worth of yellow diamonds.
The plot is incidental; what matters here is the action. Sofia Boutella is particularly fun to watch as chain-smoking assassin Nice, who kicks ass wearing an elegant silk dress, heavy-duty combat boots and a practical ponytail in the film’s fight scenes. There’s geometry to the way her body is blocked in the hotel’s narrow hallway, her silhouette like something out of a graphic novel.
