Reel Rundown: Clooney and Pitt in ‘Wolfs’ strike balance between suspense and comic interplay

In Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film “Pulp Fiction,” Harvey Keitel starred as the quintessential crime-scene clean-up man, known only as the Wolf. Keitel’s character is a no-nonsense professional, competent in all the ways needed to cover up even the bloodiest of messes.

So, as with most of Tarantino’s characters – not to mention trademark situations – it was only natural that someone would come along to parody such a scenario. And that someone is writer-director Jon Watts (“Spider-Man: No Way Home”).

Watts follows the exploits of not just one but two Tarantino-type professionals in “Wolfs” (no, not “Wolves”), a film that strikes a balance between suspense (there are some bloody shootouts) and the kind of light comic interplay that can occur between two charismatic actors with perfect on-screen chemistry.

The actors Watts works with – George Clooney and Brad Pitt – possess that kind of chemistry, being proven talents, each on his own but also as previous castmates, most notably in Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s” franchise.

Clooney’s character receives a late-night call from a woman in distress. What we ultimately learn is that the woman, Margaret (Amy Ryan), is a political figure whose reputation is important to protect – important to her and to those who might benefit from her favors.

It turns out she’s in a compromising situation, having picked up a young guy we come to know only as the Boy (Austin Abrams) who has, while high on drugs, fallen to his ostensible death. And so she calls a phone number identified only by a pair of brackets.

That’s when Clooney’s character, identified as Margaret’s Man, shows up and quickly takes charge. But even as he is explaining what Margaret needs to do, the two are interrupted. And so enters Pitt’s character, another kind of wolf, only this one hired by Pam (voiced by Frances McDormand), the owner of the elite hotel in which the incident has taken place.

That then, sets the stage for what follows, which involves our two wolfs taking care of the body, having to pursue said body when the Boy turns out not to be dead, finding a way of returning a stash of illegal drugs to its rightful owner, discovering they have more in common than they had thought and surviving gunplay with Croatian and Albanian mobsters before finally figuring out why the whole operation was set up in the first place.

None of this is particularly surprising as much of it follows the kind of formula that we’ve come to see, over the decades, in one suspense flick after the next. Yes, Watts shows some skill with the camera as we track both wolfs in their pursuit of the Boy through the late-night New York City streets.

He deserves credit, too, for dreaming up a scenario that, while not being remotely believable (in contrast to David Fincher’s 2023 film “The Killer”), never falls too far into something either totally serious or seriously comic.

And while Ryan is always a good addition to a film, and newcomer Abrams plays the clueless innocent perfectly, the success of “Wolfs” depends largely on its two leads – who clearly have the right kind of easy screen camaraderie to make even the most predictable plot work.

As Quentin Tarantino knows well, we film fans tend to be suckers for a good bromance.