Wolfs review: "George Clooney and Brad Pitt riff on their Ocean’s Eleven charisma in this fun frolic"
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Wolfs had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival. Here's our review...
"You fix things, right?" Yep, that is exactly what Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s unnamed characters do for a living in Jon Watts’ cucumber-cool crime caper. These two 'cleaners' mop up other people’s sticky situations, but never the twain shall meet. Until, that is, both are called independently to take care of an increasingly complex job that begins in a New York hotel penthouse suite. There, Clooney arrives to find Amy Ryan’s DA Margaret in a distraught state: a twenty-something male is dead in the bedroom after slipping and falling. "He’s not a prostitute," she keeps saying, though no one believes her.
Before long, in walks Pitt’s character, also wearing blue disposable gloves and an air of smarm. He’s been hired by the hotel owner to brush this potential scandal under the carpet. And so, Pitt and Clooney are suddenly forced to work together. "I’m going to supervise," says Pitt, as he watches his rival start to move the body. Except that he too is sucked in when he discovers kilos of drugs in the room. Oh, and the 'Kid', as he’s credited, is not dead. Played by Austin Abrams (Euphoria), this chattering student is the innocent patsy in a deadly situation.
Who is setting whom up? That’s the big question, albeit one that doesn’t prove interesting enough to be the film’s driving force. Watts seems far more intrigued by reuniting Clooney and Pitt, very much riffing on their Ocean’s Eleven charisma, as they bicker their way through the film like a married couple. Some moments work very well - notably one sequence on a subway train that suggests there is a little love between these two warhorses. Meanwhile, a safari-themed, cockroach-riddled motel room where they briefly hole up is guaranteed to raise smiles.
There’s a sense Wolfs wants to be a latter-day Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, yet it never quite earns the poignancy of that Newman/Redford classic. But Watts - best known for the Spider-Man: Homecoming trilogy - is a dab hand at action scenes, like the crazed chase through New York that ensues when the near-naked Kid wakes up and tries to make a run for it. Despite an amusing cameo from Zlatko Buri? (Triangle of Sadness) as a major-league gangster celebrating his daughter’s nuptials, the finale descends into a generic shoot-out, with bullets sprayed hither and yon. But for those looking for an easy-on-the-eye, brain-in-neutral-thriller, Wolfs still hits the spot.
Wolfs is available to stream via Apple TV Plus on September 27.
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