Wolfs
The bickering between George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s characters has to be one of the most entertaining qualities in any cinematic workout. Besides several other movies, these two gentlemen have developed some comic relationships in the films around the ‘Ocean’s’ saga directed by Steven Soderbergh. (To take one of their other films as an example, in “Burn after reading” directed the Coen Brothers in 2008, let’s just say that what brings them together is not a happy ending.) Anything of the like is not on the program anymore, but ‘Wolfs’ written and directed by Jon Watts does, despite its nameless main characters having a particularly hostile kind of brotherhood, seem to strive to provide its protagonists some of that classic Danny and Rusty dynamic.
Continuously and also with it a sense of purpose, Watts points the fact that these actors whom he introduces as the Last White Male Movie Stars are in fact the Last White Aging Male Movie Stars. Late in the movie, sharing of an Advil bottle between the characters is seen since they move slower than when younger men’s attire was still on them. Pitt and Clooney take up roles as ‘cleansers’ not of the dry cleaning kind but of the criminal sort. When an ambitious politico played by Amy Ryan has a high-profile tryst with a lavish hotel, that ends in the likelihood of a dead body in her hotel room, she is able to reach a contact that is simply saving only brackets on her device. And then along comes George, wearing a black turtleneck and leather jacket, carrying a few latex gloves and tools of his profession. A similar looking Brad who has been summoned by the hotel owners then shows up behind him. In the end, the couple begins arguing about who will be doing most of the cleaning while poor Ryan in her bloodstained blouse cries and explains everything.
With an impressive supporting ensemble that features Richard Kind and voice work by Frances McDormand, “Wolfs”, for its two principal protagonists, is a cool duet engine until their debate about an unsightly mess they were avoiding arguing about reaches more temperate regions than previously assumed. The character of “Kid” is essayed by Austin Abrams, who finds himself marooned by the narratives within the walls but cannot help but vacillate from one extreme awe to utter fear as the heads of his head cabinets come within a striking distance of him. Also enlivening the proceedings are some bricks of heroin or some other such substance which are sought by a couple of murderous Albanians. Woven into these narrative events are multiple chase sequences across four boroughs which are needlessly extended in duration but are once again a huge boon for the location manager David Fox and his army. Pompeii by Boys Noize is used in the trailer for this picture. There is a fair bit of nasty violence in this film, which is something Watts indulges in without shame (his efforts as director on the trashy ‘amoral horror movie “Clown” does give some pause to this venture, however), but it reminds you more of cartoon art.
It is neither a small task nor a real Major motion picture; it is entertainment perhaps in the way that Graham Greene employed the word. But one shouldn’t get so whimsical about the matter. The fact of the matter is that it’s quite a pleasure to hear Clooney once again asking the classic line, ‘What’s the play here?’, and Pitt complain, a bit later on, ‘I don’t work that way.’ As for the deep-cut fans, there’s a small tribute to ‘Ocean’s’ producer Roman Morozov, who appears as a character obsessed with Frank Sinatra.
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