Originally planned for a wide theatrical release, the George Clooney/Brad Pitt crime comedy Wolfs had its run in theaters cut short to just one week – the minimum required to satisfy both stars’ contracts – before being rapidly whisked to its long-term home on streaming. In years past, a film like this might have brought in a healthy box office return. If not even Clooney and Pitt can lure audiences to cinemas, is there any market left for movies other than mega-budget action blockbusters to play in theaters anymore?

I ask that question fully acknowledging my own complicity. I rarely go to the theater these days, and a movie like Wolfs wouldn’t have made the cut for me to do so. From the first trailer, I knew I’d wait to catch it on streaming. Nevertheless, without box office revenue from a wide range of productions large and small, this trend seems unsustainable for both the movie studios and the theatrical exhibition industry.

Title:	Wolfs
Year of Release:	2024
Director:	Jon Watts
Watched On:	Apple TV+

The official explanation for the misspelled title is that Clooney and Pitt play so-called “lone wolf” characters who are grudgingly forced to work together, against both of their natures. However, it’s also fairly obviously a reference to Harvey Keitel’s Mr. Wolf character from Pulp Fiction.

In the middle of the night, an up-and-coming politician (Amy Ryan) suffers a great misfortune that could derail her career, if not her entire life. The young boy-toy she’d brought up to her hotel room for an ill-considered tryst smashed his head through a glass table and lies dead on the floor. In a panic, she calls a phone number given to her long ago by someone she trusts. A man answers, a professional fixer (Clooney) who arrives promptly to clean up the mess, and promises her that he will make it all go away as if it never happened: “Whatever it takes, no matter what.” The man is cool and collected, and obviously knows what he’s doing. Then, just as the politician begins to steady her nerves, a new man arrives on the scene, another fixer (Pitt) just like the first – this one sent by the hotel owner, who’d been secretly spying on the room through hidden cameras and doesn’t want a scandal to tarnish her establishment’s reputation.

This presents a problem. Both men insist that they work alone and want nothing to do with one another, but circumstances require them to set aside their animosity and distrust to collaborate on this one job. Although both believe they have the situation well in hand, the matter gets exponentially more complicated when they discover that the victim was in possession of a backpack full of Mob drugs, and worse, the kid (Austin Abrams) isn’t actually as dead as he looked. Thus, what started as a routine clean-up assignment turns into a very long night.

Directed by Jon Watts (of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and its sequels), Wolfs is a brisk and breezy comedy that deftly balances humor with action. Pitt and Clooney are old friends in real life and have terrific rapport on screen. Their characters are so similar to one another that they know exactly how to push each other’s buttons and get on each other’s nerves as they deliver often hilarious banter. Their interplay is the main sales hook for the movie and is a lot of fun.

All the same, Wolfs is a decidedly lightweight movie that feels like a tossed-off effort for all involved to waste some time between more important projects. As much as there used to be a place for that sort of thing in theaters, it’s a much harder sell to ask audiences to pay today’s inflated ticket prices for a product so modest in ambition. I hate to admit it, but streaming feels like where this belongs.

As it goes on, the film’s plot also becomes increasingly convoluted and reliant on improbable coincidences. I’m not sure all of the twists in the last act hold up to scrutiny. Since its release, the studio has been talking up plans for a sequel, and the ending here definitely leaves room for one, but that doesn’t necessarily mean this story needs or even deserves a continuation. Wolfs is an enjoyable enough confection for an evening’s entertainment that would gain nothing and would only stand to wear out its welcome by becoming yet another needless franchise.

Video Streaming

Following a very brief one-week theatrical engagement, Wolfs premiered on Apple TV+ on Friday, September 27, 2024. The movie streams in 4K HDR at an aspect ratio of 2.39:1. Despite the fact that all the screencaps I grabbed off my web browser turned out extremely low-res and blurry, the actual video quality when watched on a home theater screen through a proper streaming device looks quite sharp and stable. The image may be a little dark, but that seems appropriate enough given that the story takes place almost entirely at night. Contrast and shadow detail are well rendered in the HDR grade.

Having endured far too many underwhelming Dolby Atmos soundtracks recently, it comes as a great relief to experience some content that takes good advantage of the format. The movie’s audio is very crisp, with rich musical fidelity that fills the room. Directional sound effects and music cues bounce from speaker to speaker with pinpoint precision in a very fun manner. While bass is never exactly thunderous, dynamic range sounds strong and natural in general. The sound design of the big shoot-out near the end of the movie is particularly well done.