Check in for Jodie Foster: Hotel Artemis review by Rashid Irani

The two-time Oscar winner plays a frazzled medic known only as Nurse, at a ‘residency’ that doubles as an underground hospital for criminals.

For those of you who’ve wondered from time to time whatever happened to Jodie Foster (I know I have), well, it has been a while, but she’s back.

The two-time Oscar winner who directed Money Monster in 2016 but hasn’t starred in a film since Elysium (2013), plays a frazzled medic known only as Nurse, at a ‘residency’ that doubles as an underground hospital for wounded criminals.

Hotel Artemis is set in a riot-ripped Los Angeles, circa 2028. The action is confined to a single night and occurs mainly at the titular location.

Jeff Goldblum plays the head of a crime syndicate. He also owns the facility, and checks in with a grievous injury.

After a heist goes horribly wrong, a pair of bank-robbing brothers (Sterling K Brown-Brian Tyree Henry) checks in at the members-only facility. They are soon joined by a number of other lowlifes, including an arms dealer (Charlie Day) and a French femme fatale (Sofia Boutella). Events spiral out of control with the arrival of the grievously injured don (Jeff Goldblum) who also owns the facility.

Making his feature debut, British writer-director Drew Pearce stages the climactic confrontation quite energetically. Ultimately however it is Jodie Foster’s characteristically assured performance that elevates the derivate material (John Wick, anyone?) above the commonplace.