No. 70 Wolves (2016) 68 of 100

 

This is another film that I had previously watched for another blog, obviously in this case it was the ‘W’ Movie Blog. Looking back at my review I see that this contained the first reference to the Michael Shannon Blog that you are now reading. Back in February of 2020 when the original review was written I noted I’d no time to pursue the dream of watching every Michael Shannon film – how times have changed!

I’ve reused the summary from the previous blog below but having watched the film through again I think my initial interpretation was a bit off – of course the injury was deliberately inflicted!

The ‘wolves’ of this film aren’t of the full moon variety, but the name of a high school basketball team. There's probably a metaphor in there too - 'wolves at the door', ' a pack of wolves', you get the idea. We follow the fortunes of their star player, Anthony, who dreams of a scholarship at Cornell University, where Andy out of ‘The Office’ went. His Dad, Michael Shannon, is an English professor at a poorly regarded college who is also struggling with his novel - Don't worry Mike, takes me ages to read one too. His mum is Carla Gugino who works in a clothes shop to make the family’s ends meet, having sacrificed her own ambitions.

The main spanner in the works is that Shannon is a gambler and not a very good one. We see him winning a $500 bet to clear his bar tab but as the stakes begin to rise his luck begins to falter.

Anthony’s team is doing well but his attempts to promote his friends in the starting line up nearly spells disaster. His coach relies on him but is also worried for his job. The Cornell coaches are impressed but does Anthony have the killer instinct?

Having made their way to the State finals the scene is set for Anthony and the Wolves to win the day, but a late injury may scupper his chances - and give his Dad a way out of his $200k gambling hole.

Although the son’s trials were the main focus of the film, I enjoyed the gambling subplot more, and wished the film had spent more time on this, despite Shannon’s uncharacteristic floppy hair. The gambling mentality was well observed with every small win nothing but an incentive to bet some more. It was left open to interpretation as to whether Anthony was deliberately injured by his desperate Dad and having watched the film through twice I’m of the opinion that he definitely did. With Anthony seemingly crippled Shannon sees the chance to bet the house on his boy’s team losing – but is there a last hurrah left in the lad? The final match was well staged and it inevitably goes down to the final buzzer.

The final scenes which saw a cavalcade of bookies and leg breakers show up at the game, a la Fat Tony in ‘The Simpsons’, before a final last gasp bid for glory were ridiculous, funny and exhilarating in equal measure.

Guglio as the long suffering mother and wife was good but I have no idea why she stuck with the hapless gambler. Taylor John Smith did well in the pivotal role as Anthony who had no troubles to seek, with a pregnant girlfriend and would be coaches on every corner. I also liked Chris Bauer, who you’ll know as the brothel manager on ‘The Deuce’, as Shannon’s erstwhile partner in crime.

Shannon is good as the conflicted father who wants the best for his boy but equally is struggling to get out of a gambling debt hole. His part as a college professor academic working on a novel, a la Donald Sutherland in ‘Animal House’, was somewhat familiar and I’m not sure he really captured the troubled artist bit, but he worked the smashed up pinky pretty well though!

I have seen similar films to this - ‘The Gambler’ with James Caan has a few obvious similarities for one - but there was enough new and interesting here to keep me engaged right down to the final buzzer.

When is Shannon-On? - 04.36

Outcome? Away to get his legs broken

Film 3/5

Shannon Stars 3.5/5