The discussion around whether or not we’ve run out of bonafide movie stars seems to reoccur every few months within the film industry, usually linked to whichever bright young thing is lighting up the screen or whatever building Tom Cruise has thrown himself off on any given weekday. Naysayers claim that the industry is in a charisma crisis, and that very few actors are capable of trading on name recognition alone. Even once bankable names aren’t bringing in the big bucks like they used to. But if there were ever two stars with the power to get bums on seats, it’s Brad Pitt and George Clooney, reliably entertaining and effortlessly charismatic screen personas (the less said about Clooney the director the better).
They’ve been friends for years, starring in the Ocean’s franchise on three occasions as well as The Coen Brothers’ zippy caper Burn After Reading, but it’s now 16 years since they worked together, and in that time the film landscape has altered dramatically. Case in point: Apple TV+ – founded in 2019 – financed Wolfs, the latest non-IP project from Spider-Man director Jon Watts (though a sequel is already in the works, so it’s since become IP) and both Clooney and Pitt put money back into the project to support a theatrical release rather than a straight-to-streaming roll-out, indicating both actors still clearly believe in the spectacle and value of the cinema experience. (That this would need to happen seems absurd given that Watts’ Spider-Man trilogy earned Sony a cool $4 billion, but this is where we’re at in Hollywood I guess!)
Wolfs – referring to both the lone wolf mantra of its co-leads, but incidentally a nod to Pulp Fiction’s famous fixer Winston Wolf – sees Watts take a bring from Sony’s web-slinging cash cow, as New York DA Margaret (Amy Ryan) finds herself in an unfortunate bind one night and prevails on a mysterious stranger (George Clooney) to come to her hotel suite and fix it. There’s just one snag – the hotel’s owner, Pam, is aware of what’s happened and also sends a guy to clean up the situation (Brad Pitt). Margaret’s Man and Pam’s Man are indignant, responding to the notion they work together with all the enthusiasm of two small children forced to do group work with a kid they don’t like. Then it’s off to the races.
There’s nothing particularly taxing about the plot of Wolfs, which unfolds in a predictable manner as Clooney and Pitt bicker their way through their reluctant assignment. Margaret’s mess proves much harder to clean up than either of them expected when they discover a large quantity of heroin in her room and are inadvertently tasked with returning it to its owner (explained away blithely as the Albanian mob). While the mysterious finer details of Clooney and Pitt’s characters are willfully obscured on account of their guarded professionalism, it’s a shame that the film paints in such broad strokes more widely, as this doesn’t leave much room for substantial character development or emotional investment.
There are a lot of riffs about Pitt and Clooney getting on in years too, like them having bad backs, or needing to wear reading glasses to inspect a piece of paper, which naturally have diminishing returns. Watts’ sense of humour is fairly broad, and while there are some occasionally fun quips, the script doesn’t offer much within itself, with Wolfs instead relying on its star wattage to do the heavy lifting. Pitt’s performance doesn’t feel particularly off-piste – we’ve seen him play quietly confident, hyper-competent professionals before – but Clooney, considerably grumpier than he usually appears on screen, is quite delightful, and although the pair’s real-life friendship might impede their believability as two strangers who take an immediate dislike to one another, there’s certainly a sensation of being in a safe pair of hands.
Still, it’s hard to not imagine what a more talented or daring filmmaker might be able to do with this classic odd couple set-up, as Watts plays it safe to the point of inducing boredom. Something about Wolfs feels too polished, too corporate in its execution, and rather than attempting to side-step crime comedy clichés it’s happy to just skip merrily into them.
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