The last time George Clooney and Brad Pitt paired together onscreen was for the Coen Brothers underrated gem Burn After Reading in 2008. Before that they starred in Steven Soderbergh’s popular Ocean’s trilogy. Now, writer-director Jon Watts (Spider-Man: Homecoming) reunites the two stars as a couple of “cleaners” (a la Harvey Kietel in Pulp Fiction)—fixers called in when a mess, usually of the murdering kind, needs to be wiped away completely. These wolfs work alone and are arrogant enough to think they’re the only ones who can get the job done.
But a mistake has been made… or has it? Both Pitt and Clooney have been called in to aide Amy Ryan — a highly respected district attorney who picked up a younger guy for fun, brought him up to a luxury hotel room, and found him dead a few minutes later. But is he dead? Okay, that answer is no, since he wakes up as our cleaners are getting rid of his body and goes on a lunatic run in his tightly whiteys forcing our 2 fixers to chase him all around NYC. Not easy for two men with bad backs.
Our protags are not happy about having to team up on this gig but soon begin to grudgingly warm to one another—as well as the young guy, played with endless energy by Austin Abrams.
Wolfs takes us on a whirlwind ride that is in no way groundbreaking but is wonderfully invigorating with a few cool twists thrown in. And the banter between Clooney and Pitt is clever, often hilarious, and sometimes poignant. The film was not made to change the world. It entertains and treats audiences to an excellent vehicle for two of our most beloved Oscar-winning actors.
At a key moment in Wolfs, Clooney and Pitt receive a beeper message. Clooney looks at it, then places it closer to Pitt who looks at it. They simultaneously reach for their reading glasses. It’s a funny bit, one of many moments that self-reflexively wonder if their characters are too old to be doing what they’re doing, which inevitably reflect on the actors.
Cue a bunch of annoying critics, who themselves are over 50, wondering if movie stars are still relevant. Whether the art form itself (and has it ever really been treated as such?) can exist with all the new ways of absorbing entertainment. Of course the reason these journos are asking these questions is for click bate in a desperate desire to remain relevant themselves. The irony astounds.
Decades ago the media wrote ad nauseum about how female actors over 50 could only play grandmothers and could not headline a film and bring in audiences. Actors like Jane Fonda, Sally Field and Meryl Streep proved that to be bullshit. And are still doing so.
Today, we enjoy going after older straight white men. Well, if anyone bothered to see Babylon, Pitt is still working at the top of his game. Clooney has never been the most brilliant actor but he sure knows how to command the screen. Together, they’re magic. And Apple should give them a decent theatrical run so audiences can see for themselves—on the big screen!
