Review: Coming-of-age sports tropes and gritty domestic drama don’t quite mesh in well-acted Michael Shannon-starring ‘Wolves’

There’s plenty of predatory behavior on display in the impressively acted “Wolves,” a curious if unsuccessful cross-breeding of gritty domestic drama with conventional coming-of-age sports crowd-rouser.

While the title primarily refers to the Manhattan high-school basketball team on which Anthony Keller (newcomer Taylor John Smith) is a star player whose killer three-point shot has put him on Cornell University’s radar, back at home, there are a growing number of wolves at the door.

Blame his volatile dad (Michael Shannon), a hard-drinking English lit professor whose out-of-control gambling problem is rapidly threatening to rip the family apart despite the best efforts of Anthony’s mom (Carla Gugino) to stave off all those unsavory debt collectors.

Writer-director Bart Freundlich (Julianne Moore’s husband) initially does an effective job raising the dysfunctional stakes, but he ultimately stumbles in the third act by failing to change up the inspirational sports movie tropes, which, while visually well choreographed, feel like they’ve wandered in from an entirely different production.

Credit the cast for doing its best to provide a more convincing through-line, with Shannon notably bringing his usual rough-hewn gravitas to the table.

Whether restlessly on the prowl for the next sure thing or engaging his son in a psychological alpha male battle for dominance, his performance is fittingly lupine.

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‘Wolves’

Rating: R, for language throughout and brief sexuality

Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Playing: Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills

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