Rated R, 108 minutes
Director: Jon Watts
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams
Let me tell you a quick story. Once upon a time, George Clooney and Brad Pitt auditioned for the same movie role. Both had mostly done television work up until that point, and this job would end up being a breakthrough part and the moment where the stars (and up-and-coming stardom) would be realigned. The movie was Thelma & Louise and the part of J.D. the sexy thief would go to Brad Pitt. Clooney would go back to television and star on NBC’s hit medical drama ER where, during its apex years, was watched by more than 30 million people each week.
While a decade would pass between working to get to same role to working together in Ocean’s Eleven, there’s always been a dynamic duo quality about them. Much like seeing Paul Newman and Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (55 years ago this year!) and then paired again in The Sting a few years later.
Which leads us to Wolfs, Jon Watts’s first feature after helming the ultra successful Spider-Man movies starring Tom Holland. With the clout to attract Clooney and Pitt, Watts was off to a flying start with a project that looked to check the boxes of what audiences want to see: charismatic movie stars.
And if Wolfs had been made in the late ‘90s/early 2000s – when a movie’s success was more about marquee stars than marketing and four-quadrant programming – this would have been an easy sell. But this is 2024. Clooney and Pitt are older now and their talents are wasted here.
Wolfs is a poorly constructed crime thriller where Watts, directing his own original script, tries to juggle the chumminess of a Shane Black buddy comedy with an unremarkable story about problem solvers who find themselves in a fix. The set up involves an apparent dead body (Austin Abrams) in a hotel room rented by Margaret (Amy Ryan). She calls a number and the first fixer arrives. “Margaret’s Man” (Clooney) is an older fellow with back problems but nonetheless efficient in what he does in making problems disappear. Minutes after his arrival a second fixer appears. “Pam’s Man” (Pitt) shows up because Pam is the hotel’s new owner and witnesses what happened to the young man via an illegal ceiling camera. She doesn’t want to see her hotel’s name tarnished and appear on TMZ or Page Six. The two men clash over technique, and are cantankerous to the other even while forming an acrimonious partnership once their supposedly dead body problem awakens. There’s also a matter of finding four blocks of heroin in the hotel suite.
I have a theory called the Alpha Principle. The theory goes something like this. Two alpha stars cannot work together as partners unless they have unmistakable chemistry and the material serves to elevate their incomparable charisma. Which is why in most buddy pairings one is almost always the beta. Newman and Redford pass my theory. In this case, Clooney and Pitt do not. But it’s not for a lack of trying. What fails them is the material and a lack of support. Amy Ryan’s character is in and out in fifteen minutes. Abrams shows up a half hour in and resides in the back seat of their BMW like Joe Pesci behind Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon 2. Abrams is fine and less irritating than Pesci’s Leo Getz, but he’s a third wheel in a vehicle clearly meant to seat its two stars.
Clooney and Pitt are experts at mugging for the camera, but Wolfs is a one-joke comedy thriller about aging fixers that constantly tries to find ways to make our stars show how father time is creeping up. One offering the other a bottle of Advil as pain relief seems like a metaphor for how much longer can we pull this off?
The “we” could apply to Clooney and Pitt, or it could be to studios shortening a theatrical campaign and moving directly to a streaming service. In the short run, Wolfs is a win for Apple TV+. Sony, having learned from releasing Apple’s Fly Me to the Moon over the summer, decided it was best for Wolfs to not have a wide theatrical bow. As unconscionable as this sounds for a Clooney/Pitt film, it is the right move.
Wolfs is an easy enough watch and it’s easy to forget. The opening set up is the highlight; the rest is just a ride along with no real direction. Our lone wolf problem solvers may have the charisma but at the end of the day they are just getting too old for this fix.
Grade: C
