Movie review
June 7, 2018 · 94 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Hotel Artemis is a 2018 sci-fi crime thriller set in near-future Los Angeles during riots triggered by the privatization of the city's water supply. Criminals flee to a secret, members-only hotel that functions as a high-tech hospital run by The Nurse and her enforcer, where strict rules against violence and weapons apply. The story plays out over one chaotic night as personal conflicts, betrayals, and external pressure from the riots disrupt the criminal patients inside. A visibly diverse ensemble cast fills prominent roles in this contained genre piece, with a mild anti-corporate backdrop that stays secondary to the criminal underworld drama.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Hotel Artemis.
Woke representation / casting
Visible diversity appears in prominent roles, with Black actors Sterling K. Brown and Brian Tyree Henry as central criminals in the heist storyline and Sofia Boutella as a skilled assassin, plus Jodie Foster as the competent lead Nurse. A near-future Los Angeles setting makes the mix plausible for an underworld ensemble without clear story-world mismatch. Marketing promoted an all-star cast rather than representation priorities, and the narrative does not emphasize identity or use unearned competence tied to race or gender.
Woke political dialogue
No activist speeches, identity lectures, or political monologues occur. Dialogue centers on criminal rules, personal backstories, betrayals, and immediate survival during the contained night of events.
Identity-driven story themes
Core arcs focus on criminal codes of conduct, loyalty, betrayal, and the Nurse's personal trauma and choices. The water riots add economic and class tension as external chaos but do not drive race, gender, sexuality, or representation-focused plots or character arcs.
Western institutional / cultural critique
The riots over water privatization and corporate hoarding by figures like the Wolf King create a mild anti-elite, anti-corporate dystopian backdrop. This stays peripheral as world-building and plot catalyst rather than a developed ideological critique, and it lacks modern activist framing around patriarchy, whiteness, systemic identity issues, or similar. Generic rich-versus-others genre tension scores mildly.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. This is an original screenplay with no established characters, source material, canon, or real historical figures reinterpreted through identity or DEI-driven changes.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Almost no contemporary or sustained anti-woke complaints exist that treat the film as pushing woke, activist, DEI, or left-wing political content. A tiny number of isolated later social media mentions exist but stayed fringe without generating news coverage or meaningful debate.
Creator track record context
Key creatives show mainstream commercial genre careers with low activist patterns. Drew Pearce and most producers (cached 5-15/100 range) align with standard production work. Tiffany Little Canfield fits typical industry casting practice. Adam Siegel research shows no concrete public political or identity-driven record.
Production
