Director Jon Watts’ latest non-franchise effort might just be the most low-profile high-profile movie of the year. On paper, it has all the ingredients for success: George Clooney and Brad Pitt, two megastars from Hollywood’s golden age, share the screen in a quirky caper about professional fixers tasked with cleaning up a botched rendezvous in New York City. Yet, much like its aging protagonists, “Wolfs” feels a bit creaky and self-aware. Relying heavily on the nostalgia of its stars, the result is more a relaxed joyride than a gripping experience.
For those expecting something as zippy and sharp as the Ocean’s franchise, “Wolfs” initially seems to head in that direction but ultimately takes a slower, more meandering path. Clooney and Pitt play two unnamed fixers (though they are essentially playing themselves) called in by separate clients to handle the fallout of a very messy evening. Amy Ryan plays a politician in the midst of an election campaign who accidentally finds herself with a dead lover and calls Clooney for help. Pitt, hired by the hotel’s owner to keep things quiet, soon arrives, leading to the inevitable: two rival professionals, each believing “There’s nobody who can do what I do,” forced to work together.
The film leans heavily on the chemistry between Clooney and Pitt, which gratefully still retains its spark since their last shared outing in “Burn After Reading.” Clooney delivers a smooth, confident performance bordering on nonchalance. Pitt, ever the cheeky counter, hams it up with a sort of scruffy charm. The two riff off each other like grumpy old men who can’t quite recall why they’re bickering in the first place. This Butch and Sundance-like banter forms the heartbeat of the film, though it features a few more groans over bad backs and aching knees than their younger counterparts.
However, beyond their rapport, “Wolfs” offers little to distinguish itself. Beneath the surface, it feels more like an excuse to revel in their chemistry rather than a fully-fledged story. Watts, who previously helmed the web-slinging “Spider-Man” trilogy for Marvel, seems content to let the Clooney-Pitt duo carry the film, relying on their charisma to mask the thinness of the plot. And for a while, it works. Viewers will find themselves smiling at Clooney’s smirking self-assuredness and Pitt’s goofy bravado.
But the film never fully sheds its reliance on its leads, functioning more as a love letter to a bygone era when star power alone could sell a film. Clooney and Pitt are among the last actors who can still command attention with little more than their names above the title.
. Yet, even that kind of wattage isn’t enough to guarantee market success. Once, this pairing would have been seen as an event; now, it’s just another option in your streaming queue.
The real surprise in “Wolfs” isn’t Pitt and Clooney, though their self-deprecating takes on their twilight years provide some chuckles. It’s Austin Abrams as “the Kid,” the not-quite-dead lover who awakens mid-movie and transforms the plot from a buddy comedy into a frenetic chase across the city. Abrams plays the quintessential motormouth, injecting a shot of drug-laced energy into the film just when it begins to sag. His kinetic monologue, full of nervy, semi-coherent explanations about how he got mixed up in drugs and mobsters, is one of the film’s true highlights. He manages to outshine his veteran co-stars, at least for a few key scenes.
Watts also seems to take joy in genre homage. The film tips its hat to “Pulp Fiction,” with a not-so-subtle nod to Harvey Keitel in its grammatically incorrect title, and sprinkles in everything from MacGuffins in bags to POV shots from the trunk of a car. Yet none of this coalesces into something greater… perhaps that was never the intention in the first place.
In the end, “Wolfs” coasts by on charisma rather than craft. It’s fun, occasionally clever, and oh, so smooth, but it’s not particularly memorable. Will viewers remember the plot? Probably not. Will they enjoy spending two hours in the company of Clooney and Pitt? Absolutely. After all, there is nobody who can do what they can do.
“Wolfs” is currently streaming on Apple TV.
