Welcome back to Maddie's Movie Reviews. Today's movie is one that I actually watched fairly recently. Typically, I write movies 1 week after I write them, but this is one that to me has become an easy pick for "Movies I could rewatch a couple hundred times over pizza and a joint." This movie is one that has, unfortunately, fallen victim to the dreaded Apple TV Exclusive, which I feel is massively unfair to not only it's quality, but for the story itself. Strap yourself in for a ride filled with mystery, suspense, and gay tension. Here's Wolfs (2024) starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt.



Now I know what you might be thinking. Who the hell names a movie "Wolfs?" Did the director flunk the first grade? That's what I myself thought, but ultimately it's a decision that should ultimately doesn't really even matter all that much. Sure, you get more than a few name drops that I could hear CinemaSins pissing his pants over while loudly exclaiming "Title card!" but, again, it's a decision that ultimately doesn't matter to the overall plot of the movie. What DOES matter is the actual premise itself. I often find myself surprised at how minimal "Crime scene cleaner that works for the mob" media exists out there. One of the first people that comes to mind would be Mike Ehrmentraut from Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad (2008-2013), who is amnong some of the most iconic "Old dudes in the crime game" that I could think of.

"But Maddie!" I hear you cry out in horror. "George Clooney is only 63 years old!" I dunno, seems old to me. Plus, "Old dudes that work in the crime game" isn't supposed to be a bad thing. In fact, older veteran criminals are among some of my absolute favorite tropes in terms of characters. It expresses a distinct vibe of "I've been in this since before your DAD was concieved" that I can't help but respect. That means, of course, there must be a younger man to balance out this veteran. Enter Brad Pitt's character, who I'll just refer to as Brad. In the entire movie, both of our main characters are never given names, so I will refer to them as the actors' names. Brad Pitt's character is a younger guy, and he's working for the crime boss that owns the hotel from the intro. This crime boss wants to get rid of a man who has seemingly overdosed, as well as any evidence of a murder. Little do they know, there's much more to the story behind this overdosed man, and it involved the weaving of these two men's stories together in a way that is actually very believable. At first, the two hate each others' guys. Brad sees George as this old fart that's going senile, and George sees Brad as this dumb kid who's too cocky (despite Brad actually also looking slightly older.) Over time, however, these two eventually learn to work together and actually are able to tolerate one another as they move around what I think is either Chicago or New York trying to clean up the mess from the hotel.



At times, it does very much show that this is a more indie film, despite having two VERY prestigious actors under their belt. Some decisions in terms of shooting I found to be slightly controversial or odd, as it relies heavy on long and wide shots slowly panning across the different axes and angles. Most of the time, I can definitely see the vision in making these decisions artistic and memorable, and for what it's worth most of them do come off as very visually appealling, and others not so. The story of the heroin dead drop is extremely intriguing, as it is the catalyst for the entire story, however I feel they could have spent just a little bit more time elaborating on the implications of this somehow god-heroin that has record breaking potency. Perhaps, they could have focused a bit more on the origins, who made it, why the plane crashed and the shipment was lost, etc. through narrated shots of the actual process. There are very few movies out there that I can see as nothing but pure fun, but Wolfs has to be among them. While some of the finer details are lost, the actual movie itself watching these two cleaners forced to get along while in a crappy situation is oddly compelling and entertaining. Some of the best movies I've seen are ones that feel like Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. By this, I mean moments where you can clearly look at a scene and say "Oh hey, he rolled a nat 1 on that dex check" or "Oh nice, nat 20 on that acrobatics save!" If the plot contained plenty of moments to cut corners and be convenient, it wouldn't be all that entertaiing at all. But these moments of failure, from very small and seemingly insignificant moments like not having the correct contacts for a situation to massive life-saving decisions made in a fire fight, makes stories more compelling and interesting. I feel Wolfs captures this just fine, making sure that you know that George needs Brad to do some things and vice versa.

Overall, I'd give Wolfs (2024) an 8/10

++ Just plain fun
+ Characters are memorable and iconic
- Some visual elements aren't the best, but good for what the director was given.