Wolfs *** (2024, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams) – Classic Movie Review 13,194

George Clooney and Brad Pitt star as rival professional fixers forced to work together in the slick 2024 American dark comedy action thriller film Wolfs.

The 2024 American dark comedy action thriller film Wolfs is written and directed by Jon Watts, and stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt, along with Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, and Poorna Jagannathan.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt star as rival professional fixers forced to work together on a job despite the need to operate as lone wolves (wolfs?). It is basically a bromance version of Pitt’s Mr and Mrs Smith, without the missus, Mr and Mr Smith, if you like. And I do quite like. There’s a kind of 2 Guns thing going on too, and probably most viewers will be able to think of several films with similar ideas.

Old pals George Clooney and Brad Pitt star brightly, sharing good chemistry and making the most of all the humour and wit in the script, and there is plenty. It’s very smartly made, and snazzy looking, very. The plot and characters are just a pic-and-mix from umpteen movies, in the homage style of Tarantino, and there’s a bit of his stuff in there too, especially the throwaway dialogue.

Despite a huge body count, and too many guns, it’s not really very violent at all, just jokey and funny. It’s somewhere between amusing and funny all the way through, and that is tricky to do, and way enough for the film to work. Best of all, the two old guys George Clooney and Brad Pitt have still got the stuff, strutting it in style. Pitt’s got a long chase to perform, and, boy, he can still run. Silver fox Clooney takes the car. In case you’re wondering about the plot, either now, or while you’re viewing, or after the movie, the Albanians dun it. We’ve got to find movie villains somewhere, eh?

Amy Ryan plays older woman Margaret, running for District Attorney, who panics after dragging a young man into her posh hotel suite for some love making and finding he ends up dead. But she calls an unknown number given to her by a trusted man, a number belonging to older professional fixer called Jack (George Clooney). Jack arrives at the apartment with his gear to clean things up, but then in walks Nick, a middle-aged professional fixer, who works for the hotel’s mysterious owner Pam (voice of Frances McDormand).

The two men bicker and squabble, as they start to try to get rid of the body and clean up the hotel suite. However, that is just the start of things. It eventually turns out that a major heroin deal involving various criminal gangs is underway, and Jack and Nick have to try to operate (and co-operate) and remain unnoticed by the gangsters as they would be known from their previous work for the gangs.

Despite this teasing, elaborate set-up, and quite bafflingly complicated exposition, it adds up to nothing very much at all, eventually totally unmemorable. In a week’s time, you’ll have no recall and be amazed if someone reminds you that you’ve seen it. But that means you could see it all over again, and gladly.

It entirely motors on the charm and appeal of George and Brad, and they have it in bucketloads, so there’s no problem there. It’s an old-style star vehicle. Nobody else gets much of a look in. Austin Abrams, who plays the Kid has a lot of running around to do, and he does it valiantly.

Wolfs premiered out of competition at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2024, and had a limited US theatrical release by Apple Original Films on September 20, 2024, before its streaming debut on Apple TV+ on September 27, 2024.

In 2017 Austin Abrams (born September 2, 1996) starred in Brad’s Status (2017). Just sayin’.

The cast are George Clooney as Jack, Brad Pitt as Nick, Amy Ryan as Margaret, Austin Abrams as Kid, Poorna Jagannathan as June, Zlatko Burić as Dimitri, Richard Kind as Kid’s dad, and Frances McDormand as the voice of Pamela Dowd-Henry.

Jon Watts (born June 28, 1981) is best known for directing the Spider-Man films: Homecoming (2017), Far From Home (2019), and No Way Home (2021).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,194

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