Wolfs
Written and Directed by Jon Watts
Produced by George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Dianne McGunigle, Jon Watts
Starring
George Clooney
Brad Pitt
Amy Ryan
Austin Abrams
Poorna Jagannathan
Cinematography Larkin Seiple
Edited by Andrew Weisblum
Music by Theodore Shapiro
Production companies Apple Studios, Plan B Entertainment, Smokehouse Pictures
Distributed by Apple TV+
Running time 108 minutes
If you’ve seen Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or Midnight Run, then Wolfs is going to be familiar ground. Two stand-alone ‘special contractors’ also known as ‘fixers’ are forced to work together to make an ugly death in a posh hotel go away. Both are hard-edged grizzled veterans accustomed to navigating the often turbulent waters of organized crime, rich society, and east European drug cartels. Not only are neither the sort willing to work with someone else, but both, as a political exigency, can’t even acknowledge the existence of the other. So it’s a rough start to the relationship.
Both are watching the body disposal techniques of the other with growing, if very reluctant admiration. There are lots of humorous potshots taken with a thick fog of silly testosterone. Clooney and Pitt were all but invented for the roles, and the chemistry is terrific.
But then the body gets up and runs away. Bickering increases, mostly over the proper technique of taking a pulse, but both realize the escaped body is now a joint problem, being, as it were, no longer a body. They have to round it up and finish the job to the satisfaction of their respective employers.
Austin Abrams was “the body” and now is “the kid” (none of the three main characters have names). As the kid, Abrams is just as cute as a puppy with the same silly enthusiasm and harmless aggressiveness, and about the same level of gullibility. The unsuspecting kid has a MacGuffin, and Clooney and Pitt have to take care of that before tackling a thornier problem—taking care of the kid.
This is well-trodden ground and its main attraction is that of showcasing the talents of the actors, which are considerable.
It’s well on the fluffy side of relevant, but it is enormous fun and a great way to kill 90 minutes in a pleasant and engaging manner.