[NoHo Arts District, CA] – In this month’s movie and TV reviews blog, Mike Peros looks at Wolfs.
Ordinarily, a film with the star power of Brad Pitt and George Clooney would be a shoo-in for a theatrical release, but in this increasingly skittish theatrical landscape, you can find their latest film, Wolfs, on an Apple TV near you. While it doesn’t exhibit the stars in peak form—in fact, one might say they are coasting—they do it with some semblance of style. In Wolfs, directed and written by Jon Watts, the two leads are independent fixers: You know, the kind that can help clean up a messy situation, like an untimely death in an inconvenient place. In this case, it’s a hotel room where a male prostitute has just dropped in the company of prominent citizen Amy Ryan. She calls in her fixer (George Clooney) but soon after he arrives, another fixer (Brad Pitt) appears on the scene, making a messy situation messier. There are complications and conflicts, including whether or not to work together, who takes the lead, who’s losing his touch—and what to do about the $250,000 in drugs they discovered. Pitt and Clooney work well together, though their onscreen exchanges could use a bit more wit and variations; the action scenes are competent but not memorable, and there is a final twist for those who are longing for a sequel. In the end, it’s not their best work, but it is reasonably entertaining if you’re in the mood.