After a limited theatrical run, Apple Original Films' Wolfs, which stars Brad Pitt and George Clooney, has made its streaming debut. The action comedy follows a professional fixer known simply as Margaret's Man (Clooney), who is hired to cover up a high-profile crime. Unfortunately for him, Pam's Man (Pitt), another fixer, was also called in to clean up the mess.
Pitt and Clooney headlining a new movie together was a long time coming. Their on-screen chemistry was a highlight of many movies in the early to mid-'00s, such as the Oceans trilogy, the Coen brothers comedy Burn After Reading and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which Clooney directed. While their voices were featured in the Ryan Reynolds movie IF (Pitt played Keith, Clooney played Spaceman), it's been 12 years since the actors shared the big screen.
Wolfs also stars Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, Poorna Jagannathan, Richard Kind and Zlatko Burić. It was written, directed and produced by Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and produced in partnership with Clooney's Smokehouse Pictures and Pitt's Plan B Entertainment.
When and Where to Watch Wolfs
Wolfs is now playing in select theaters and debuts globally on Apple TV Plus on Friday, Sept. 27.
Apple TV Plus costs $10 a month. The service offers a seven-day free trial so users can kick the tires before deciding if they want to commit. Are you the owner of a new Apple device? You've got three months of Apple TV Plus coming to you as long as you redeem the deal within the first 90 days of owning the device.
How to Watch Wolfs with a VPN
What if you're traveling abroad and want to stream Wolfs on Apple TV Plus locally? You may need a different way to watch the movie -- that's where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds by encrypting your traffic, and it's also a great idea if you're traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.
With a VPN, you're able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the movie. Most VPNs, like our Editors' Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.
Using a VPN to watch or stream a movie is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Canada, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you're streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied restrictions.
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Austin Abrams Steals the Show in Wolfs
Is it possible to steal a movie out from under George Clooney and Brad Pitt, two of the matinee idols of our time? With “Wolfs,” Austin Abrams makes the case that you can.
The 28-year-old star, perhaps best known up to this point for dancing shirtless onstage to Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero” in a flamboyant musical sequence in HBO’s “Euphoria,” again finds himself in a manner of undress in Jon Watts’ Apple TV+ comedy film. Here, he’s down to only his briefs and a pair of crew socks, running around Lower Manhattan trying to evade two fixers (Clooney and Pitt) toiling until twilight to clean up his mess.
In the big-budget but minor-key comedy written and directed by Watts — in a return to movies-for-adults form after his duties on the Tom Holland “Spider-Man” films — the charismatic Abrams is simply known in the script as “Kid.” When this one-night movie starts, he’s presumed ODed and dead after a busted one-night stand with a district attorney (Amy Ryan). Enter Jack (Clooney) and Nick (Pitt), rival fixers who’ve both been dispatched via some logistical confusion that turns out to be a deliberate strategy on the part of their boss (Frances McDormand, only heard in phone calls), to dispose of the body and reset the evening’s orbit. But the Kid emerges from the drunk of their car alive yet not so well, revealing in at least one rambling, jittery, one-take monologue what really went down with the DA.
In a looping, breathless rant with shrewd comic timing, Abrams reveals the Kid took on a drug heist for the thrill of the story. And in a performance that recalls Griffin Dunne’s manic turn in another New York all-nighter of a movie, Scorsese’s “After Hours.”
“It’s certainly a genre that’s interesting to me, definitely,” Abrams told IndieWire over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles, a “2001: A Space Odyssey” poster fixed on the wall behind him. “Something like ‘Eyes Wide Shut.’ I love that movie, though I know it’s not always people’s favorite Kubrick movie. I love how it’s shot and takes place in mostly one night. In terms of how much it would factor into a performance, not necessarily much, because what are you going to do, try to replicate something? I try to just be present to what’s going on around me.”
Abrams had never been to the Venice Film Festival, where “Wolfs” made its out-of-competition premiere this year, and during an especially sticky-hot early September along the lagoon of the Adriatic Sea. “Thankfully, it cooled down enough at night where, it’s still hot, but you were sweating a little bit less, like a quarter-cup less,” he said. “It was crazy. It was crazy to be just on the carpet with those guys and watching them do the carpet, and the whole day was something you just had to jump into and go with the flow of whatever the hell was happening.”
When he first received the script for “Wolfs,” Abrams knew only that Clooney and Pitt were set to star. (There’s already a sequel set up at Apple, which Abrams said he expects to be part of.) “No one knew anything about it other than that Brad and George were in it and that Jon was directing,” he said. “I had absolutely no idea what it was about, or anything like that. All I got was the interrogation scene.”
Abrams said he didn’t do a chemistry read with the actors. “It was a standard audition and then meeting with Jon, who I’ve known for a bit through some other friends … A big part of it was convincing myself it was possible to be able to do this and work with the two of those guys. You see those names, and you don’t think it’s going to be possible at all. It took a lot of hammering into my mind it was possible.”
As for the sequence where Abrams is running through lower New York City in only his underwear and socks, he said, “Every night was the longest night. We were filming that scene for, I don’t know man, like three, four weeks, way longer than I thought we were going to be… They just put me in the car and just told me to ‘fucking go over there’ and ‘run over there’ as fast as I could. I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was [in New York]. They would shut down certain parts of the street, while other parts were open to the public just walking around. There’s only so much you can do in New York in terms of what you’re able to shut down. I would be turning a corner and would run into regular people. They wouldn’t see any cameras, so they’re just kind of freaked out because they’re seeing a dude in his underwear running at them.”
So, really, just another day in New York City.
Meanwhile, Apple scrapped wider release plans and ended up dropping “Wolfs” in theaters for only one week before its streaming premiere on Apple TV+ (today, Friday, September 27), and with marquee stars like Clooney and Pitt, here’s a movie that could’ve done solid business with a wider theatrical window. Alas, “Wolfs” is part of Apple’s continuing bet on big-money projects to lure more subscribers. (See the recent streaming success of “Presumed Innocent,” Apple’s bonafide water cooler smash starring Jake Gyllenhaal.) Though Apple would’ve needed a robust theatrical partner — such as Paramount, which distributed “Killers of the Flower Moon” last year — to pull off a major push.
“The vision always was for it to be released wide, and certainly seeing it, we premiered it the other night, and it was great to see it with an audience. It really did play well,” Abrams said. “People have whatever priorities that they have that I am not privy to or know anything about, and everyone made whatever decision they thought was best for them. The desire always was to have it be seen in theaters, and it does make a difference.”
The question Abrams is always asked is surely what’s the deal with “Euphoria” Season 3? The shooting date — with principal cast members like Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney set to return — is now eyeing January 2025 after numerous starts, stops, ups, and downs at HBO for the Sam Levinson-created teen drama. How Abrams’ Ethan will factor into that season is another question. Ethan was the sweet-natured boyfriend of Kat, played by Barbie Ferreira, who cut ties with the series after the character was relegated to the sidelines in Season 2 — and that also included a harsh breakup with Ethan that some viewers felt betrayed both characters.
Abrams said while he’s “not tired” of being asked about “Euphoria” and when the new season will go, he added, “I just don’t have anything to say about it simply because I don’t know. I don’t know if I anticipate being included in the third season if they make a third season. I’d love to be included in it. I loved working on that project. That’s all I can really say.”
The new season is supposed to include a time jump — appropriate given the young actors and that Season 2 premiered almost two years ago in early 2022 — and given Ethan’s breakup with Kat, there may not be a place for Abrams this time around. Who knows if he’d even be in touch with his classmates like Rue (Zendaya) anymore?
“A hundred percent. Totally. You got it.”
Next up, Abrams stars alongside Julia Garner and Josh Brolin in “Barbarian” director Zach Cregger’s “Weapons,” which wrapped filming this past July. It’s set in a small Florida community and revolves around a series of disappearing children with a supernatural underpinning.
“It has a bit of the same vein of [‘Barbarian’],” Abrams said. “It follows some different folks and is all intertwined, that kind of style. There’s only a certain amount that I can say about it in the way that I don’t know how they want to present it to the public … A big part of what sets Zach apart is his comedy and how cutting it is, how genius it is.
Abrams also stars in Ethan Berger’s upcoming “The Line” as a fraternity pledge subjected to brutal hazing exercises. Abrams said, looking ahead, his goal is to “just keep working with great directors. I would love to really work with some classic directors that I’ve grown up watching. To be able to step up to the plate of that and rise to the occasion.”
That’s something he’d have to do a lot of homework for, but Abrams said, “I do a lot of homework. I try to not talk about those things so much, so I don’t know how it’s presented. Maybe it seems like [I don’t], which is a good thing. You don’t want to show any sort of homework. That’s the whole point.”
“Wolfs” is now streaming on Apple TV+.
A Star-Studded Action Comedy
“Wolfs” is an example of how star wattage can carry — and save — a film. This light action comedy is powered by two former recipients of People’s Sexiest Man of the Year award, George Clooney and Brad Pitt. The former brings his laconic, laissez-faire attitude while the latter is all cocky snark. Together, they exude an enormous amount of chemistry, enough to make this AppleTV+ movie worth watching.
Clooney and Pitt play rival fixers who show up to neutralize the same problem. Since the idea of two fixers on any job is a professional no-no, the duo has to first solve the problem of each other’s presence.
Clooney’s unnamed character is called by Margaret (Amy Ryan), the blood-drenched, high-powered district attorney trapped in a luxury hotel room with a much younger, and very dead, sexual hookup the film credits as Kid (Austin Abrams). He accidentally fell through a glass bar while still in his tighty-whiteys and socks. Kid looks about 14, but he’s actually 23. “He’s not a prostitute!” Margaret repeatedly exclaims, much to everyone else’s disbelief.
Pitt’s unnamed fixer is called by Pam (the voice of Frances McDormand). She’s the owner of the hotel where the film’s opening act takes place. Pam is so paranoid she’s installed cameras in her luxury suites to ensure any potential scandals are dealt with quickly. Her booming, disembodied voice echoes through the room, explaining why the fixers have to work together: Pitt is her employee and Clooney has been caught on camera, the kiss of death for a man who works anonymously.
Writer-director Jon Watts fills the first 20 or so minutes with examples of process, which you know I love watching. We see how Clooney cleans up the crime scene, wrapping up Kid’s body with a clever use of a hotel luggage cart. Pitt’s backseat driver provides snide commentary on his rival’s methods. “Did you check to make sure he was dead?” he asks.
Turns out that’s a good question to ask. We know Clooney checked for a pulse, but that doesn’t explain how Kid suddenly comes back to life while he’s being driven to his final destination. Now our heroes have a problem that’s even bigger than the four blocks of heroin they found in Kid’s bag at the hotel.
Kid’s resurrection leads to an extended chase, on foot and by car, through the streets, across rooftops and construction beams. Throughout this sequence, Kid is in his drawers and tube socks. The action ends with a slow-motion closeup of his lower body as it glides over a speeding car. If you ever wanted to see what a Fruit of the Loom ad would look like if Michael Bay directed it, this is your chance.
The convoluted plot of “Wolfs” is irrelevant. It’s the MacGuffin that allows its stars to coast by on their effortless charms. Pitt and Clooney make it look easy. They’re assisted by Abrams, who imbues his goofball-nerd character with an awkward sweetness that balances out all the trouble he causes.
When Kid explains how he met Margaret, and how excited he was to finally be getting some attention from the opposite sex, you almost want to hug the poor loser. (He was jumping on the bed with excitement before he went through that glass bar.) Neither fixer can put a bullet in his head after hearing that story.
“Wolfs” has enough action to keep us from contemplating how silly it is. As an added bonus, there’s more than a hint of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” here, especially in the ending. That final scene might have been more effective had a sequel not been announced, definitively answering a question the film wisely kept vague.
Watts directed the last three live-action “Spider-Man” movies. But “Wolfs” reminded me of his much smaller 2015 film “Cop Car,” which also coasted by on the star power of its lead, Kevin Bacon, creating a fun genre exercise that didn’t wear out its welcome. These two movies would make a great double feature on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
