Wolfs is Apple TV+s newest straight to streaming movie offering, and unlike a lot of the streaming crap that’s been released over the past few years, this is one that I think actually could have done okay at the theaters.
When the local DA finds herself in a compromising situation at a posh hotel with a dead young man who’s not her husband, she follows the advice she was once given but never thought she’d actually need. She calls a fixer. When he arrives, it seems like he might be able to make all her problems disappear, until a second Fixer knocks on the door. Now Fixer 1 and Fixer 2, lone wolves by trade, have to figure out how to work together to achieve competing agendas for competing employers. As the night goes on, they discover that things aren’t as they seem, and they may have bitten off more than they can chew.
Wolfs is basically a “buddy” movie, and is carried entirely on the backs of the two protagonists, George Clooney and Brad Pitt. You never learn their characters’ names, but no surprise, they can do that routine in their sleep. Their aging nameless road weary fixers don’t want to work together, don’t like each other, and don’t trust each other, but soon find they have more in common than they thought. The low key one-liners and ribbing are punctuated by an almost zany side character in the “kid” they have to drag around with them as they try to clean up a series of messes. The plot isn’t going to win any Oscars, but it’s competent, and the writing, performances, camera work, and pacing are all likewise very decent. It looks and feels like a movie, as opposed to a made-for-TV piece of “content.”
If you have Apple TV+, Wolfs is worth a watch. It’s not the next Citizen Kane, but it has humor and action, and Clooney and Pitt still have some charisma to show on the screen. It’s rated R for some language and violence.