Wolfs (dir. John Watts)

By: Adam Freed

According to English lore, it is madness for sheep to talk peace with a wolf.  And too it seems unlikely for men who deal in bloodshed to find salvation in the confines of tranquility.  Within the amorphous moral boundaries of a world in which the prosperous evade responsibility on the backs of the men they hire to cleanse the evidence of their recklessness, AppleTV presents Wolfs. Somewhere between dark comedy and action thriller, director John Watts helms the confoundingly promising film stuck uncomfortably between its high concept and flat execution.  Wolfs wisely hitches its wagon to the undeniable chemistry and screen charisma of twin billed stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt. It’s unfortunate that a film capable of such stylish and sleek charisma doles it out so conservatively.  Pitt (Moneyball, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Clooney (Michael Clayton, Oceans 11) play a reluctantly mismatched pair of “fixers” inadvertently teamed to clean up the same political mess.

Wolfs has no problem earning immediate attention with a sleek opening scene set in a stylish Manhattan hotel suite, creatively inviting audiences into a world of dark secrets and deep cover ups.  Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone, Birdman) plays wonderfully as an opening counterbalance to the star power of Pitt & Clooney, only adding to the confusing fact that she only occupies the film’s first handful of minutes.  While Watts’ (Spider Man: No Way Home) is no stranger to large productions, Wolfs feels remarkably small in concept considering it includes two of history’s biggest stars and America’s most populous city.  Disappointingly the film begins to falter once the story is forced to leave the confines of the ritzy hotel, and into the slushy wintertime streets of the city that never sleeps.  

John Watts’ film unsurprisingly attempts to lean into its humor as both Clooney and Pitt are no strangers to quippy dialogue, but Wolfs fails to provide a script that consistently provides noteworthy comedic fodder.  It is nearly impossible to spend an evening watching Brad Pitt and George Clooney and feel it is time wasted, and this certainly is not the case with Wolfs, but seeing the two together cannot help but initiate fond memories of the far more fun and thought provoking Oceans trilogy.  If only the AppleTV vehicle were blessed with the propulsive filmmaking style of Steven Soderbergh, it may have been more howl than whimper. 

Target Score: 6/10  At its best Wolfs is thoroughly enjoyable, but its fragmented plot presents set piece after set piece with varying degrees of success.  AppleTV is wise to let Wolfs roam freely on their streaming platform rather than attempt to hunt global theatrical dominance.