Name a more iconic duo than George Clooney and Brad Pitt in a classy comedy thriller

Jon Watts rediscovers his movie joie de vivre with the classic comedy thriller “Wolfs,” starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt as a pair of lonely fixers who clean up the same messes when they’re hired to do the same jobs. Seeing this “Ocean’s Eleven” duo of matinee idols back on screen, you’re in good hands from the start — the witty repartee flows, the self-satisfied, smooth banter flows, and it all happens in a tight, clean, cool, time-limited comedy that puts Jack (Clooney) and Nick (Pitt) in their own brand of late-night New York “After Hours.” That’s because things get a lot messier than expected when a man listed in the credits simply as “kid” (and played by the talented, fast-talking, grinning up-and-coming actor Austin Abrams) turns out not to be as dead as the prosecutor (Amy Ryan) who took him back to her hotel room thought. “Wolfs” is a slick, stylish film from Watts, who just wrapped up directing duties on “Spider-Man” for Sony.

A sequel to writer/director Watts’ irresistibly fun studio comedy is already in the works, and it’s easy to see why. Even though “Wolfs” is ultimately a lighthearted affair, it’s a crushingly good movie, confidently told and unpredictable, with two charismatic leads who are nearly overshadowed by Abrams. “Wolfs” is merely a pleasant diversion — and it’s a shame Apple is only letting it run in theaters for one week, because this Clooney-Pitt affair would do enough business to deserve a longer run — not an Oscar-worthy movie, not an overly serious adult movie. But it’s a smart adult movie, even in its most faintly reassuring moments, when “Wolfs” rides on the chemistry of its leads, whose performances are reminders of what they’ve always been good at — and make it look easy.

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A visibly stressed Amy Ryan (and who doesn’t love Amy Ryan?) as district attorney Margaret calls in a service sent by a voice belonging to Frances McDormand to get a discretionary fixer (Clooney’s Jack, a far cry from the Michael Claytons of the world) to clean up a messy one-night stand that almost happened. As Margaret explains, the boy (Abrams) she picked up at the hotel bar before she brought her upstairs got a little too rowdy with the booze, jumped off the bed and hit his head, killing him. Jack arrives to clean up the mess, but so does Nick, who’s also been sent by the same boss in a scenario that’s immediately brimming with comedic potential. And it turns out the boy may have overdosed on a sample of the four bricks of heroin that Jack and Nick found in a backpack. They had to share space and solve this night together, despite their immediate disdain for each other.

Moreover, the boy isn’t dead, as his pale, borderline-corpselike self leaps from the trunk Jack shoves him into. So a trio is formed, with the goal of returning the heroin to whose hands it belongs. As the boy says in a repetitive, breathless tirade that Abrams delivers with sly comic timing, he took it upon himself to move the drugs for the sake of story tension. Nick and Jack wind up chasing the boy, clad only in white tights, up and down the Lower East Side in another scene reminiscent of “After Hours.” Abrams himself could even be a successor to a young Griffin Dunne, though his character is more than a little dimwitted here.

Cinematographer Larkin Seiple and production designer Jade Healy make respectable use of the dim New York City locations — this is a film set almost in real time, in the wee hours after midnight and before dawn — and Brighton Beach in a final scene that closes the film on an ambiguous note. But with a sequel already in the works, we can rest assured that these men won’t die after the screen goes black. There’s nothing particularly unique or offbeat about “Wolfs” — it’s a familiar story told well, and in the reassuring presence of two of Hollywood’s biggest actors. Watching Clooney and Pitt pretend to hate each other makes for a solid time at the movies, and in a film that takes almost no risks (except with a budget of that size for what’s essentially a streaming-only film), there’s less chance of anything going wrong. A genuinely hilarious moment on a subway train toward the finale almost turns “Wolfs” into something sentimental — only to have Watts say, just for the heck of it, and give the middle finger. And the actors could have delivered it with their eyes closed, and probably in their sleep.

Grade: B

“Wolfs” will have its world premiere at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. It will open in theaters for a week starting September 20, before streaming on Apple TV+ on September 27.

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