If there’s one thing that Americans have truly understood, it’s that in life, as in cinema, there’s a need for a bit of healthy lightness. And lightness is precisely the protagonist of the new film with George Clooney and Brad Pitt presented, out of competition, at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. It’s called Wolfs and it’s an action comedy that tells the story of two lone wolves, two professional “fixers”, that is, people who cover up evidence of murders, make bodies disappear, erase anything that should remain silent and invisible. The two, however, despite always working independently, find themselves having to collaborate in a truly unusual case that will lead them to hate each other, clash but, in the end, to understand the value of sharing and collaboration.

Behind the camera is Jon Watts, the only director who has managed to bring to Venice something that had been completely missing until now: entertainment.

Wolfs, in fact, is a breath of fresh air, it is the only film that, in this cinematographic kermesse that perhaps sometimes takes itself a little too seriously, was able to make everyone laugh and do so for the entire two hours of the film. The strong element of the action comedy with Clooney and Pitt, in fact, is precisely its comedy that is so well constructed that it is universal, understandable to everyone and, precisely for this reason, successful. A comedy that Americans know how to use very well in their cinematographic or serial products, always managing to understand the needs of the public and, consequently, to satisfy them fully and this must be recognized.

It must be said, however, that this film would not have been the same without an irresistible duo of protagonists like George Clooney and Brad Pitt, perfect in their dual roles of friends/enemies, good/bad, loners/sociable. The two Hollywood superstars, in fact, dominate the scene to perfection and bring to the screen a very successful all-male story that is never cloying, banal or sexist but always balanced, ironic and in the end also unexpectedly profound.

The plot unfolds all in one night with protagonists who represent three generations of men with all their contradictions and peculiarities becoming a mirror of a society where adults must leave space for the younger generation and the latter must learn to trust the experience of those who are older.

Without a doubt, Wolfs is the funniest film of the Venice Film Festival, but it’s not just that, it’s a film that unites an audience of different generations, it’s a reflection on very current themes such as the praise of extreme individualism that dominates our society but that can also become a double-edged sword and then you laugh a lot and laughing, at the cinema, is not so obvious.

Some will call it the “usual American thing” and Wolf will be one too, but sometimes, from cinema, we need this too, perhaps more than we want to admit.

Rating: 7.5

The film that breaks taboos on women’s sexual fantasies