The Pitch: Two men (played by Brad Pitt and George Clooney) share a lot in common — because they’re two of New York City’s most talented fixers, men who know how to make problems go away for the very rich. However, they only work alone, being lone wolfs by nature.
However, when a powerful political figure named Margaret (Amy Ryan) needs help cleaning up a mess involving a hotel penthouse suite, four bricks of drugs, and a maybe-dead maybe-prostitute, the two get pushed into partnering up, discovering along the way that they make a pretty good team. Unfortunately, the situation is more dangerous than they realize — and their shaky new bond may not be enough to help them survive the night.
The Same But Different: Apple TV+’s sleek and stylish Wolfs is written and directed by Jon Watts, who previously made his mark as the director of the last three Spider-Man movies (not to mention the well-respected crime thriller Cop Car). That all said, if you assumed Steven Soderbergh was behind the camera, it’d be an understandable mistake. Not just because the light action comedy teams up two Ocean’s Eleven stars for some less-than-legal doings, but because the sleek and stylish vibes invoke that director’s own signature style, albeit with some fun tweaks of Watts’ own creation.
Taking place over the course of one night, Wolfs invokes the same late-night vibes as great movies like Collateral and After Hours — that sense that once most of the city is asleep, danger might be everywhere, but so are possibilities. But the movie keeps its focus throughout, which in turn makes sure that the action tight, with some very effective cross-cutting to smooth things along. This is a movie which keeps a lot of its secrets pretty well buried, information trickling out in subtle ways.
For process and detail nerds like this humble writer, there’s also a lot of visceral pleasure to be found in watching smart people solve problems, whether that problem is tracking down the source of the aforementioned drugs or negotiating some help out of Chinatown’s best off-the-books doctor (Poorna Jagannathan from Never Have I Ever).
Bringing In the Experts: Watts leans hard on the natural chemistry between Clooney and Pitt (born of decades of actual friendship) for most of Wolfs‘ appeal, and it’s an effective gambit. We never learn either character’s name; hell, we never really get much of a sense of what differentiates them from each other, aside from the slightest differences in their working styles. Instead, the movie is focused on what makes them the same, from equally tricky backs to their shared need for reading glasses. (Being, as they are, “men of a certain age.”)
But while this means that the concept of character development is pretty minimal, it really doesn’t matter, because both actors know how to take what the good lord gave them and make it incredibly compelling to watch. It’s star-powered filmmaking of the highest order, the actors’ off-screen history serving as the film’s emotional hook.
Wolfs (Apple TV+)
The scope of the film stays relatively small, really allowing it to be the Pitt and Clooney show — but Amy Ryan’s brief appearances are a welcome reminder of how compelling an actress she is, especially when trying to tread the line between power and terror. Poorna Jagannathan also has some great flinty chemistry with both Clooney and Pitt. And while talking too much about Austin Abrams’s character would constitute a spoiler, know that the young Euphoria and Walking Dead star gets a few showcase scenes that are pretty awe-inspiring.
The Verdict: Wolfs was originally set to have a wide theatrical release followed by premiering on Apple TV+, a plan that was abandoned after the company decided it didn’t want to risk the movie being a box office disappointment. It’s perhaps an understandable fear, given that theatrical releases have no guarantee of success these days, especially for smaller-scale movies like this that aren’t sequels, or adaptations of best-selling novels. Blake Lively or Wolverine or animated emotions are bigger draws, these days, than two movie stars treading familiar turf.
Yet Wolfs is classy, smart, fun, and engaging storytelling, a solid film that plays great in a full theater and could have offered audiences a nice grown-up night at the movies. So hopefully some people take advantage of that this weekend. And if they don’t… well, it’ll be available for streaming next week. It won’t quite be the same. But a good movie is a good movie, no matter what the size of the screen.
Where to Watch: Wolfs plays in limited release beginning Friday, Sept. 20th, and will begin streaming on Apple TV+ on Sept. 27th.
Trailer: