Wolfs (2024) Apple TV+/Comedy-Thriller RT: 108 minutes Rated R (language throughout, some violent content, drug material) Director: Jon Watts Screenplay: Jon Watts Music: Theodore Shapiro Cinematography: Larkin Seiple Release date: September 20, 2024 (US, limited)/September 27, 2024 (US, Apple TV+) Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, Poorna Jagannathan, Zlato Buric, Richard Kind, Frances McDormand (voice).
Rating: ***
Why, you may ask, did the new George Clooney-Brad Pitt movie Wolfs premiere on a streaming service? That’s a good question. It was originally set to be released to cinemas by Columbia in an agreement with Apple Studios. That is, until a month ago when Apple backed out of the deal and decided to give it a limited theatrical release on its scheduled opening date (Sept. 20) before debuting it on Apple TV+ a week later. Like Kenan Thompson asks on SNL, what’s up with that?
You would think a film with the combined star power of Clooney and Pitt would clean up at the box office. Think again. That’s no guarantee these days. Just ask Apple Studios. The studio has seen its share of failures. Not a single one of their films, among them Killers of the Flower Moon, Napoleon, Argylle and Fly Me to the Moon, turned a profit. It’s likely Apple executives sensed the same fate for Wolfs. It’s not exactly what you’d call a crowd pleaser. There’s not a lot of action or even much of a plot. It’s mainly about the two stars exchanging witty banter as they work their way through a dicey situation.
The star’s characters go unnamed throughout the entirety of Wolfs so for the purposes of this review, I’m going to refer to them as Fixer #1 (Clooney) and Fixer #2 (Pitt). Here’s the situation. A woman (Ryan, Gone Baby Gone), who we later learn is the Manhattan DA, needs a mess cleaned up. She’s in an upscale hotel room with the (seemingly) dead body of a much younger man. His death was accidental, but she can’t afford the scandal. She calls an unidentified number on her phone and gets a message informing her it’s no longer in service. Moments later, she gets a call from a man asking who gave her his number. After some back and forth, he tells her to do absolutely nothing until he arrives.
The guy is Fixer #1. He’s a “cleaner”. He gives her specific instructions on how she’s to proceed. They’re interrupted by the arrival of rival cleaner Fixer #2. He’s been called in by the hotel owner who saw the whole thing go down via a hidden camera in the room. She too wants to avoid a scandal. There’s some debate over who’s going to handle the job until the hotel owner Pam (represented by the voice of Frances McDormand) tells the guys it’s in both their interests to work together. They don’t want to, but they have no choice.
The situation becomes more complicated than it initially seems. What they’re trying to dispose of is a bit livelier than the average corpse. In other words, he’s not dead. That’s not all. “The Kid” (Abrams, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) has a large quantity of drugs on him. Pam orders them to return the drugs to the rightful owner, an Albanian mob boss (Buric, Triangle of Sadness).
Although there is some action, that’s not what Wolfs is about. It’s merely a set-up for Clooney and Pitt to show off the same great chemistry they displayed in the Ocean’s movies. They’ve still got it. Their relationship in the film follows a familiar trajectory. Dislike turns into tolerance which turns into cooperation as they navigate a tricky, potentially dangerous situation. The two actors have an easy, natural rapport with each other. They understand each other’s unique rhythms. It allows them to play well off one another. At times, it sounds like they’re improvising, a creative choice that works in the movie’s favor. It’s a pleasure just listening to them.
Clooney and Pitt are helped greatly by writer-director Jon Watts’ (the MCU Spider-Man films) well-written screenplay. It’s witty and smart. In addition, Wolfs has a sleek, stylish look that enhances the tone very well. It takes place almost entirely at night. The fixers spend a lot of time in #1’s car driving through nice sections of New York. Even Chinatown looks good. The credit goes mainly to Watts’ cinematographer Larkin Seiple (Everything Everywhere All at Once) who knows how to perfectly film the two stars against the backdrop of nighttime NYC.
For those who insist on labels, let’s call Wolfs a comedic crime thriller. It has a few funny moments amidst its noirish trappings. The scene where the fixers crash a wedding and get dragged into a traditional Albanian dance had me chuckling. A sequence where the fixers chase Kid after an attempted escape dance is both amusing and riveting. The crime thriller aspect of the film is similarly compelling even if it isn’t fully developed. Like I said, there’s not a lot of plot to Wolfs. Some viewers will find that off-putting.
Wolfs benefits from a gifted supporting cast that includes Richard Kind (Beau Is Afraid). He plays a Frank Sinatra superfan the fixers encounter in their travels. It’s only one scene, but it’s a great call-out to the original Ocean’s 11 from 1960. That’s what I like about Wolfs. It’s not afraid to show its age much like the lead actors, both in their 60s now. They might not move as fast as they did in their 30s, but they haven’t lost a step in their back-and-forth banter. It’s fun watching these two professionals do what they do best.
I think I now understand why Apple didn’t give Wolfs a big theatrical release. It probably wouldn’t attract audiences once word got out it’s not an action movie. Here’s hoping it finds an audience on its streaming platform.
