Most genre films have an oddball character or two thrown in for color. An eccentric specialist or secretive fixer, they pop into the story for a bit, perform a difficult task, possibly while delivering a staccato monologue, and then disappear. “I’d like to see a movie that’s just about THEM,” one occasionally thinks. Hotel Artemis is that movie, and it’s just as good as it sounds.
The ensemble of eccentrics on offer are the clientele and staff of the titular hotel—an exquisitely dilapidated art-deco section of an otherwise abandoned building in the middle of a cyberpunk-y, riot-filled, near-future Los Angeles. The staff consists of a fast-talking shut-in mob doctor, the Nurse (Jodie Foster), and her enormous orderly, Everest (Dave Bautista, enormous).