Wolves

4 outta 5

Wolfs is a zippy movie from writer/director Jon Watts, the director of the last three Spider-Man films, and he brings a similar pace here. There is even a bit where a young man is parkour running across the rooftops, so he doesn’t entirely let the whole Spider-Man vibe drop. In his Spider-Man movies, and in this one, Watts does a great job at a cascading series of things going wrong for Our Heroes. This movie has two movie stars engaging in movie star stuff that basically involves a lot of quipping and looking cool, as they constantly give each other side eyes that get a laugh. This movie opens dark and then takes a turn into a fun madcap crime caper ultimately about two lone wolves becoming, if not exactly best buddies, but at least somewhat nicer.

Margaret (Amy Ryan) is having an incredibly bad night when during a romantic liaison, a young man (Austin Abrams) ends up with him accidentally falling and dying on a drink cart in her hotel room. She calls a fixer (George Clooney) to clean up the mess. Unexpectedly, there is a knock at the door and another fixer (Brad Pitt) arrives. It turns out the room was under surveillance and the hotel’s owner wants the two fixers to work together to discreetly dispose of the evidence. Things get complicated when the two fixers find a pile of drugs, and things get exceptionally more complicated when they find out the young man isn’t actually dead. So now they must find out where the drugs are supposed to go, take care of the young man permanently, and manage to not get on each other’s nerves, or get killed by Albanian bad guys, the whole night.

A lot of this movie is coasting on movie star vibes, which Clooney and Pitt are, naturally, exceptionally good at. Both have put in literally Oscar worthy performances with depth and nuance. This is not one of those. Which is totally fine. They are very similar to each other, which irritates the heck out of them. Their characters don’t even get names, which is ultimately irrelevant as Clooney and Pitt are basically playing versions of themselves. Margaret starts the film swearing, screaming and crying as she struggles with bloodstains on her fingers to dial the number of the fixer. Clooney’s guy comes in as a cold calculating professional and lays down the law to Ryan’s hysterical client. It is a very dark and intense opening which flips over to a buddy love hate comedy when Pitt shows up. The tonal gearshift may be stark, but it still is entertaining.

Pitt’s fixer is already annoyed that another fixer is there. When the mysterious employer says they have to work together, they start trying to outdo each other. When Clooney starts cleaning up the body, using an incredibly effective bit with a luggage cart to hoist it up, Pitt just sits back and cracks open a coke, saying that he’s “supervising.” Clooney has a litany of exasperated looks that he gives at Pitt’s fixer and they’re all pretty funny. Pitt is an actor who can sometimes indulge in mugging, and this movie lets him do it a bunch; a few times he gets laughs just from arched eyebrows. There’s a bit when they are arguing about where to go with the not dead young man and they squabble over not revealing who “their guy” is, which turns out to be the same woman. Also, a great argument is when Pitt rips on Clooney for not checking the guy’s pulse, but when they get to the doctor to inspect him, even she says his pulse is so incredibly weak that even medical professionals could have missed it, which makes Clooney very happy.

An entertaining scene is when the guys realize that the young man isn’t dead and he immediately bolts down the street during winter snow in just his underwear, making a strange hooting noise. Both of the elder fixers are too tired to keep up and Clooney basically hits the kid with his car but the kid flips over and lands on his feet. It is a very Spider-Man style move and even Pitt is impressed by it. Abrams’ character has a running gag when everyone thinks that he was a prostitute and when he’s being interrogated he says he isn’t a prostitute and goes on a long rambling story that he can’t even get to the point rapidly. He starts off saying “I woke up,” and Pitt snaps at him, “Everyone’s day starts with waking up!” Abrams’ character ends up being very likable in a dopey sort of way which increases the tension at the end when it looks like the fixers will have to take him out to clean up the job.

Wolfs does eventually feature a shootout that manages to be entertaining and madcap like the rest of the film, as there’s comedy from the guys hiding behind a car that gets shot to pieces. And while the finale scene may seem like sequel bait, it just feels like the right moment to end on. This is not a deep film, but it does fly by and offers up some good lead chemistry and twists to make for an engaging watch.