Aahana Swrup
‘Wolfs’ is an action–comedy film directed by Jon Watts that charts a wild night of reluctant cooperation between two unnamed fixers who are perpetually at odds with each other despite their similarities. As a high-profile woman, Margaret finds herself in a hotel under incriminating circumstances; she reaches out to an elusive “fixer” (George Clooney) to help her clean up the mess. However, another fixer (Brad Pitt) also arrives at the scene at the hotel’s behest, compelling the two rivals to work through their differences and join forces. Nevertheless, the same proves to be harder than imagined when the assumed dead young man (Austin Abrams) wakes up, demanding the duo tie up a world of loose ends involving dangerous drug gangs.
As the two fixers—one hired by Margaret and the other by Pam—embark on this night-long Odyssey with the Kid, the Club Ice Palazzo, frequented by shady characters, becomes one of their earlier stops. Consequently, viewers must be intrigued by the location’s potential basis in reality after watching the action unfold within the New York-based Club.
Club Ice, A.K.A., Da Mikelle Palazzo is a Real Place
In ‘Wolfs,’ many of the narrative beats remain wildly outlandish as the film follows two crime-fixers and their misadventure over the course of a single night. As their storylines incorporate various gangs into the overnight quest of the unnamed protagonists, it builds an entertainingly cinematic tale. Yet, the film holds onto a sense of realism—primarily through its skeleton structure—and the immersive nature of its filming locations. Club Ice, the location where Margaret and Pam’s fixers arrive to retrieve the Kid’s pager, is one such location. The club, also known as Da Mikelle Palazzo—the signage on the front of its building—is an actual establishment that exists even in off-screen New York.
The real-life Da Mikelle Palazzo is an events venue located in the Queens borough at 69-02 Garfield Avenue. The place is known for being a delightful venue for celebrations of all kinds, maintaining a cultural relevance in the area. Thus, the establishment typically oversees events like galas, weddings, and other occasions, providing the perfect background for people’s special days. As such, its depiction on the screen in ‘Wolfs’ as the location for a luxurious Croatian wedding remains reflective of the real-life locations’ usual roster.
However, the sprinkling of criminality within the on-screen wedding—in the form of attempted shootouts and stashing of a legally-fraught pager—adds a veil of fictionality over the venue. For the same reason, the film opts to label the Palazzo with a new name, Club Ice—a moniker that has nothing to do with the actual establishment. Consequently, while Club Ice and the various dealings unfolding within it remain a work of fiction, its basis in Da Mikelle Palazzo is directly a part of reality.
