‘Wolfs’: George Clooney and Brad Pitt Are Back Together as Dueling Fixers in Stylish Thriller

Alci Rengifo

In the twilight of the age of bonafide movie stars, two veterans like George Clooney and Brad Pitt can still save a movie on presence alone. “Wolfs” feels designed to be all about letting the camera linger on these two leading men. The plot is one we have seen hundreds of times, to the point where director Jon Watts is not trying to consciously do anything new. What he does is focus on making this movie with enough style, leaving the rhythm of Clooney and Pitt’s banter as the real reason to keep watching. The two are self-referencing their own onscreen personas, like aged versions of the characters that made them famous.

Watts opens in glossy fashion in a Manhattan deluxe penthouse hotel, where Margaret (Amy Ryan), a district attorney, has a serious crisis. A young would-be hookup (Austin Abrams) is lying apparently dead on the floor. She dials up a trusted fixer (Clooney), who arrives ready to practice his craft. Just as he’s snapped on the surgical gloves to begin a clean-up, another fixer (Pitt) walks in. Who called in the other guy? It was the hotel’s owner, who keeps track of what the powerful do in her establishment. After Margaret scurries out, leaving the two annoyed fixers to fight over this gig, they happen to find a few bricks of heroin stashed in a bag. Not only that, but the young body is not dead, he was just overdosing. When the two professionals put the pieces together, they figure they need to return the heroin to its original owners lest they, and the kid, get axed.

Watts’ screenplay never names the fixers or the kid, keeping them as mysterious, snappy personalities. Once they leave the hotel room, “Wolfs” follows the fixers through a series of funny pit stops on their way to the eventual climax. Watts has directed major blockbusters like “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” and yet barely pulls off any stunts here, which is good. He is having more fun letting Clooney and Pitt argue and get snarky. Their fixer characters are metaphors for veteran divas with big egos. Clooney boasts that nobody can do what he does when he arrives at the penthouse, which is the same line Pitt’s character could say about himself. These two men are now in their 60s and have aged incredibly well, retaining their cool guy charm from past hits like “Ocean’s Eleven.” Refreshingly, they make fun of those very personas. Clooney gets irritated with Pitt constantly attempting to give him directions, as if he doesn’t know Manhattan. Famously ageless Pitt keeps referencing Clooney as the older guy, though in real life both actors are only three years apart.

Without these two guys, the movie’s story would simply feel intrusive or lagging. When they stop at a roach motel to interrogate the young guy (played with great anxiety by Austin Abrams of “Euphoria”), the jokes land well. In a great burst of monologue, Abrams desperately tries to explain why he was in that room with Margaret. Funnier still is Pitt’s reaction to a cockroach in the sink or a hallway argument with Clooney. Their boss, Pam (Poorna Jagannathan), has to act like a den mother getting them to behave. That’s the real essence of the movie. “Wolfs” almost works like an improvisation session where the actors are given a theme and have to run with it. Watts stages some hilarious moments of pure slapstick, like an Albanian wedding involving a gang boss (Zlatko Buric) where Clooney and Pitt are pulled into a traditional dance. 

There is one shootout, still featuring a good gag or two, and a massacre Watts keeps completely off screen. We shouldn’t mind considering how often we’ve seen Clooney and Pitt run, jump and fire prop weapons. Cinematographer Larkin Seiple lights in wintry tones both warm and arctic, never letting the camera get erratic. The title of “Wolfs” is also appropriate, because it feels like a celebration of these two men and an elegy for the kind of stardom they embodied so well. Sure, fellow big names like Tom Cruise can still attract box office and deliver hits, but the times are changing. A diner conversation between the fixers, as they sense they will need to face a new threat together, is a wonderfully appropriate way of framing classic Hollywood charmers facing the future. That kind of subtext makes “Wolfs” work much better than just another caper.

“Wolfs” releases Sept. 20 in select theaters and begins streaming Sept. 27 on Apple TV.