The Unfettered Critic – Dec 2024/Jan 2025

RECENTLY we were drifting through Art Presence admiring an exhibit of locally-crafted artwork, when a woman looked up from a chair in a corner and calmly stated, “I’m waiting to see what you say about Wolfs.”

Really.

Let us step back for a moment. We always enjoy encountering you, Dear Readers, and hearing your thoughts about this column. But this comment came as a surprise. We weren’t sure whether it was a compliment—or a challenge.

When, we wondered, had our contribution here become a mandate?

“We’ll take a look,” we replied tentatively, and moved on.

Wolfs. We’d heard the title, so we recognized that she meant a movie streaming (on Apple TV+), but we hadn’t really thought about it other than wondering why the title was grammatically incorrect. “Wolves” would be proper, but ever since Quentin Tarantino mangled Inglourious Basterds into acceptability, we don’t question much.

So we checked it out, figuring that the casting alone should be worth our time. George Clooney, who isn’t given a character name, and Brad Pitt, known as “Nick,” have great “buddy” chemistry, apparent since they first teamed up in Ocean’s Eleven (followed by Twelve and Thirteen) a few decades back. Their sardonic interplay may remind you of last century’s great buddy team-up, Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the near-perfect Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

In Wolfs, Clooney plays a “cleaner,” a guy who illegally cleans up violent crime scenes so that no one ever discovers that the crimes took place. It’s a one of a kind profession, requiring skill, secrecy and discretion, making him a “lone wolf.” But he’s barely started his latest job—removing all traces of an inadvertent death during an ill-fated hookup in a classy hotel (look for actress Amy Ryan from Only Murders in the Building)—when he’s interrupted by Brad Pitt who apparently has been hired to perform the same task. Each of them had assumed that his services/skill/contacts were unique, until it becomes clear that they aren’t. Thus, the duo is forced to work together, becoming the plural “lone wolfs,” working separately but together. Uncomfortably together.

Wolfs’ screenplay is structured much along the lines of Butch Cassidy. Whereas Butch and Sundance were forced to switch from bank robbing in America to trying something different in Bolivia, Clooney and Pitt’s job evolves from getting rid of the dead body to getting rid of four kilos of drugs. The real fun starts when the “dead body” turns out to be not so dead. In fact, it’s a stoned kid, known only as “Kid.”

“Kid,” is played by a surprisingly pleasing actor named Austin Abrams (The Walking Dead, Euphoria). Abrams spends much of his screen time running, jumping, and screaming through the streets while clad only in his tidy whities, giving us a full-frontal view of New York City’s Chinatown.

The action scenes are fun and fast, except for one slow-motion sequence that on its own is worth the price of admission. Yet director Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) stages many of the interior shots as one would a stage play, cleverly relieving the tensions building just outside the scene.

We especially liked the soundtrack’s song choices, starting with Clooney’s character working alone to the Sade crooner, “Cool Operator.” By the end of the movie, the theme has become Bill Withers’ “Just the Two of Us.” A perfect fit, from beginning to end.

And speaking of the end, remember the shoot-out at the end of Butch and Sundance? You’d think you could expect something similar here, too.

(Although we’ve heard rumors of a sequel…)