Review: Wolfs (2024)

The first non-Marvel work from filmmaker Jon Watts since 2015, Wolfs is not only a return to form for the once-indie director, but also feels like the kind of offbeat crime film that Miramax used to crank out monthly back in the mid-to-late 1990s. Maybe the throwback tone isn't intentional, but it's not lost on me that stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt both made a name for themselves in exactly this kind of film decades ago; this is now their sixth screen project together after Ocean's 11-13, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Burn After Reading. 

Tonally, the movie balances a dark world of crime and graphic violence with a strong sense of humor, but it's not laugh-out-loud funny. Rather, it's the kind of humor that you recognize as being bizarre, the kind that makes you say "huh" and maybe nod or smile in appreciation. This movie doesn't seem particularly eager to please--a factor that I appreciate--and it's in no hurry, either. This is a vibe movie, and one that takes place over the course of a single night--a trick that few filmmakers even attempt to perform these days. 

George Clooney and Brad Pitt play rival "fixers," clean-up men who work for unsavory people. In 1995's Pulp Fiction (there go the 90s again), Harvey Keitel plays a character called "The Wolf," someone who comes into a crime scene to remove a dead body, making the situation disappear. That's exactly what our two leads are here, and the "Wolfs" title joke relies on you being familiar with this genre and with other quirky crime films. It's refreshing to see a filmmaker not underestimate his audience and feel no compulsion to hold its hand. The title is also a nod to our two leads being competing alphas, hence the constant tension as they realize that they're not quite the loners that they thought they were. 

The real trick with a single-night movie is keeping the audience from being bored, and that's no small feat. After all, we're living in a 15-second world with attention spans shorter than ever. It's quite the task to reveal a story over the course of one evening, planting seeds in act one that might not blossom until act three. The first thirty minutes is all set-up, and viewers with less patience will wonder if things are ever going to pick up. But this movie lives and dies on its characters, and that set-up is crucial to the relationship and dynamic between our two leads, who essentially carry the weight of the entire film. There are supporting players, of course: Austin Abrams plays an integral part to the story that I won't elaborate on here, lest I spoil plot details. Amy Ryan, lately of Only Murders In The Building, provides our gateway into this shadowy world. Coen Brothers royalty Frances McDormand lends her talents as well, and George Clooney's old roommate Richard Kind even shows up. It feels a little bit like a family reunion for eccentric character actors.

Wolfs is definitely worth your time, and even though I'm not a franchise movie fan these days, the film's premise and characters lend themselves to a sequel that I'd have been happy to see. Watts even wrote the film to set up future stories. However, this is why we can't have nice things: after being promised a theatrical run by Apple, the film's financiers, writer/director Jon Watts had begun work on the sequel. Clooney and Pitt, both co-producers, took a pay cut to ensure the movie got a theatrical run, too. At the 11th hour, Apple apparently got cold feet and cancelled the theatrical run, debuting the film on their Apple TV + subscription platform, effectively robbing the film of its prestige and relegating it to streaming hell. Outraged, Watts returned the fee that he'd accepted for the sequel screenplay and publicly blasted Apple for their tactics, distancing himself from future projects with the studio. 

As such, Wolfs is a great example of the kind of movie that we don't get very often these days, but also shows us exactly why these films are rarely made anymore: the studios fundamentally lack faith in their commercial appeal. I enjoyed Watts' Spider-Man films, but Wolfs feels like the kind of movie that he was born to create, adding something original, if not groundbreaking, to what is becoming an increasingly homogenized cinematic landscape.