Wolves is an interesting reminder of the route writer-director Jon Watts could have taken had he not ended up in the Spiderverse, and is an amped-up version of his 2015 Sundance debut Police carThat film starred two unknown children in a good-natured crime film reminiscent of Spielberg in his Sugarland Express days; this leans towards After closing time-era Scorsese, and stars two of the most famous people in the world. While they have a lot of fun doing it, the familiarity of the two graying matinee idols as they bicker and banter through an effortless yet slightly weightless genre adventure leaves you with the lingering suspicion that maybe they’re having a little more fun than we are.

Probably inspired by Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and the character Winston “The Wolf” Wolf (played by Harvey Keitel), this is a whole movie dedicated to a character on the fringes of crime thrillers: The Fixer. It begins with a situation in dire need of resolution: it’s Christmas and New York District Attorney Margaret Kretzer (Amy Ryan) is alone in a fancy new Manhattan hotel, cursing murder with the body of a nearly naked, drug-addicted young man lying in a pool of blood and glass on the bedroom floor. In desperation, she picks up her cell phone and dials a number that leads to a disconnected line.

A few seconds later, a voice calls her back: “How did you get this number?” The voice calls from a pay phone in a dive bar, and Margaret explains that she got his number for just these kinds of moments. As if paraphrasing an ’80s action poster, she tells him what she’s been told about him: “There’s only one man in this town who can do what you do. This man is a professional. This man is a expertHe agrees to take the job and arrives within the hour, having given Margaret strict instructions to sit still and not touch anything.

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Played by Clooney, this is Margaret’s Man, and he gets to work with subdued enthusiasm. Suddenly, however, there’s a noise and another man appears. The newcomer, played by Brad Pitt, is the Mr. Fixit hired by the hotel’s unseen owner, Pamela Dowd-Henry (voiced by Frances McDormand). Pam has been watching the night’s events on an illegal surveillance camera and demands that the two men work together to clean up this “absolute mess of a mess.” Margaret’s Man, the archetypal lone wolf, chafes at this unnecessary intervention, while Pam’s Man delights in poking the (slightly older) man as they dispose of the body and any sign that Kretzer was ever there.

As a clean up procedure, Wolves is often very funny and very inventive. Both men have thoughtfully brought clean outfits for the blood-soaked Kretzer to wear, and there is a delightful moment where she takes a skirt from one man and a top from the other, leaving them both slightly disappointed. It soon becomes apparent that they are very, very competitive, and there is a stylized, almost Hitchcockian feel to the opening scene, slightly reminiscent of Ropeas the two men bicker over the dark art of repair.

The stakes are raised a little when Pam’s Man finds a bag hidden behind a dresser; inside are four bricks of a drug that looks suspiciously like heroin. This, of course, changes everything, and Pam, rightly, panics, not wanting her small hotel to be caught in the crossfire of a drug cartel war. That’s not the only surprise in store, though: the boy isn’t dead, and he somehow eludes their normally capable clutches, leading to an extraordinarily elaborate chase that sees Margaret’s Man and Pam’s Man orchestrate a pincer movement by foot and car.

This, however, is just the starting point for a brilliant action comedy that, frankly, will appeal most to an over-40 audience raised on a diet of films starring bored, wisecracking characters who born too old for this s—. The camaraderie is palpable and genuine, but the repartee is forced compared to the gentle physical comedy they both do so well (and which they telegraphed so well in their best joint effort, the Coens’ 2008 Burn after reading). The rambling dialogues, which at times seem more self-indulgent than funny, are particularly tiresome and distract from the unnecessarily extended reveal at the end, which (or does it?) devolves into a dizzying back-and-forth discussion.

Luckily, they’re both veterans of the business, but their overfamiliarity robs the film of the surprise that’s sorely needed in a timeworn caper about stolen drugs and a ruthless Croatian criminal (played by Zlatko Burić in a criminally underdeveloped role). In that sense, the film’s MVP is Austin Abrams, the corpse from the hotel room whose protestations (“I’m not a prostitute!”) fall on deaf ears and whose surprising backstory adds an interesting third wheel. Midnight Run-style mismatched buddy premise.

Unsurprisingly, despite the stale Butch and Sundance ending, the film leaves the door wide open for a sequel — who’s the fixer behind the fixers? — and, in stark contrast to the Ocean’s franchise’s diminishing returns, a new effort could shake things up. Watts is likely thinking of the Wolfverse right now…

Title: Wolves
Festival: Venice (out of competition)
Distributor: Apple TV+
Director-screenwriter: Jon Watts
Form: Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, Poorna Jagannathan, Zlatko Burić, Richard Kind
Playing time: 1 hour 48 minutes