WOLFS

US, 2024, 98 minutes, Colour.

George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams.

Directed by Jon Watts.

Something of a surprise to find that a film with these two stars missed out on cinema release and sent straight to streaming. Not that it is a great film or anything like that, but it is the kind of film that audiences do enjoy.

Audiences who relished performances by George Clooney and by Brad Pitt over the decades, especially enjoying their work together in the Oceans 11, 12, 13 thrillers. They play off each other very well indeed – though, checking on ages, it is a bit of a surprise to find that the always boyish looking Brad Pitt is only two years younger than George Clooney.

The film opens with a compromising situation, a district attorney who is strong on moral standards (a glimpse of a poster of her claiming this during the film) has gone with a young man up to a hotel suite for a rendezvous, but, in his leaping excitedly on the bed, falls and hits his head. She has a phone number and calls it. No answer. Then a phone call back and the promise of one of those “cleaners” who come into work their magic to remove all traces in dire situations. He arrives. George Clooney.

And, then, who should arrive but another cleaner, Brad Pitt, employed by the management of the hotel. Then begins professional competition, a rivalry in techniques, claims of superiority – but they having to work together to remedy the situation. (And the audience themselves getting quite a few tips how to wrap a corpse and a carpet, hangers on one of those clothing trolleys, Tippett into the boot of the car!)

And since this all happens early in the film, where will it now go? Actually, the young man has a bag full of drugs which leads to all kinds of complications, tracking down the dealers, discovering at a wedding celebration Eastern European gangsters for whom each of them worked (and a comic situation at a wedding ceremony where they have to pretend to be at war with each other, guns drawn, in order to escape). It is that kind of scenario.

The other complication is the young man is not dead at all, and they have to use him to recover his pager from the bar where the wedding party is being held, to get him to go in with the drugs, the danger of his death from the dealers – or from Clooney himself.

As well that ends well, especially if the film is successful and there is a call for the Wolfs to be hired for another job.

1. George Clooney, Brad Pitt? Audience anticipation? The screen personalities, working with each other, from each other?
2. The New York settings, the hotels and hotel rooms, the streets, the marriage celebration lavish, seedy situations for drug dealers? The musical score, the range of songs – Smooth Operator?
3. The initial situation, the woman in the room, the body on the floor, getting her bag, splashed with blood? The phone call, the return call, the interrogation? The cleaner turning up, his personality, unsmiling, efficient? The knock on the door, the second cleaner, his appearance, similarities, assured, the setting up of confrontation between the two?
4. The theme throughout the film, the similarities, dissimilarities, competitive, suspicious, individualist, give-and-take, rivalries? The George Clooney-Brad Pitt interactions?

The situation in the hotel room, the woman as an Assistant District Attorney, the glimpse of her poster during the film advocating morality? Her shock, the story, the bar, the young man, in the room, his jumping on the bed, hitting his head, the assumption that he was dead? The two cleaners, the clothes, getting her to her daughter, covering the situation, sending her home?

5. The reality of the surveillance camera – and the sequence of the credits, the playing of this footage? And who had it?
6. The manager of the hotel, the control, advice? The rivalry, Margaret’s man and his techniques for turning the body, wrapping it, putting it in the stand? Out into the corridor, the elevator, making the surveillance cameras, the technique of getting it into the boot of the car?
7. The discovery of the drugs, further complications? The irony that the young man was not dead, punched, quiet?
8. The development of the situation with the young man, the drugs, taking into the mutual friend, her handling the situation, the irony that she knew both of them, their reactions?
9. Speculation about the drugs and their origins? The various gangs?
10. The young man, getting out of the car, the chase, the long chase sequence, the running, the driving, his derring-do, finally caught?
11. The issue of the drugs, his explanation of his situation, studies, exams, his friend, the drugs, experimenting, going up to the room, the accident? The issue of the pager at the bar?
12. Going to the wedding celebration, the young man going to the bar, the issue with the pager, his being evicted? The cleaners, caught up in the dance, the guns and their performance, the bluff, the fear that they would be killed because of their knowledge?
13. The finale, going to the rendezvous, the various gangs, their car being shot up, the dead coming out of the building, their going in, finding the young man, the thought of killing him, not doing it, the other cleaner firing into the drugs, leaving a more credible situation?
14. The two, taking the young man home, the talk with his father?
15. The finale, the gunmen and their threats, the end?