George Clooney and Brad Pitt star in an action-comedy, directed by Jon Watts, now streaming on Apple TV+.
Slotting easily into the realm of action-comedies powered by big-name performances, Wolfs depends entirely on the charm and chemistry between its two leads.
The film is written and directed by Jon Watts, whose career took off with 2015’s indie crime thriller Cop Car, starring Kevin Bacon, which vaulted him into the director’s chair on the most recent trilogy of Spider-Man movies. Big, sprawling, and borderline incoherent in their noisy action scenes, Watts carries over that sensibility for an extended chase sequence in Wolfs, which is ultimately inconsequential to the plot, such as it is, dependent upon a convuluted narrative that I could not relate at gunpoint.
Right now, though, I am in the midst of an enjoyable seasonal job that leaves little time for recreational viewing, so the simple pleasures offered by Wolfs are mostly diverting and occasionally quite entertaining. George Clooney and Brad Pitt are middle-aged “fixers” who have grown accustomed to working alone in order to do clean up criminal activities. Forced to work together one night, they bicker and banter like an old married couple and/or two people who are falling in love and vigorously resisting their mutual attraction.
The opening sequences, in a luxury hotel suite, are the most effective. Amy Ryan plays a political figure who was fooling around with a young man (Austin Abrams) when he unexpectedly collapses in a bloody heap. Clooney is called in to make the problem go away. Before he can make that happen, Pitt shows up as a rival “fixer,” and the complications (and comedy) begin in earnest.
Clooney and Pitt have a long history of working together on screen and off, and their professional chemistry is fine-tuned by now, and enjoyable to watch, like a talk show appearance that lasts 108 minutes. Of course, 108-minute talks are rare nowadays — most often known as “podcasts” — and it’s difficult to keep such an appearance on point and avoid meandering. Wolfs meanders a lot, depending upon the indulgence of viewers to watch two famous men banter and bicker.
The nature of the “fixers” as characters never comes into focus, either. How did two extremely good-looking men fall under the sway of a mysterious, powerful force who somehow seduced them into a way of life that would keep them isolated and alone perpetually? (Oh, except for [spoiler]. Ha ha! (Not really; it’s kinda sad.)] For a while, I wondered if Watts would find a way for their nascent attraction to blossom into true love (or at least lust), but Watts does not go there. So subversion, much less perversion, is off the table, which leaves only the superficial to while away the time.
And I’m not entirely opposed to that. Wolfs is perfectly fine, as long as you don’t expect anything more than stylish-looking fluff that already has begun to flee my brain, even as I write this review.
The film is now streaming worldwide on Apple TV+.
Dallas Film Now. 