The Vortex (2025) Review

The Vortex is a film that, very loosely, is about a Las Vegas comedian who has a gambling problem and is indebted to the mob. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it was not.

Billy Gardell plays Pete, a Las Vegas comedian. He has a gambling problem, as evidenced by the phone messages he has that tell him all his utilities are about to cut off. He goes to play in a small, “non-smoking” slots room. His game of choice? Digital poker. Throughout the evening, a bunch of people come into the room: an Indigenous member of the cleaning crew; a couple women looking to gamble; a mafioso who wants his money; a thug who threatens to hurt Pete if he doesn’t pay; a cocktail waitress; another casino performer; and a few others. Despite the fact that Pete is in a bad place in his life, he doesn’t seem to have any of the typical problems that movie gamblers have. He is patient with everyone who comes in, chats with everyone, isn’t grumpy or angry that he is being disturbed, isn’t even scared that the mafia are threatening him.

The film is set seven hours before a massive fire broke out at the MGM Grand. This is based on a real fire that hit the strip in 1980. The film opens with a card describing the fire, that killed 85. And while the film ends with the fire breaking out, there is nothing else. Pete has already left the hotel and finds out about the fire by witnessing it from another hotel. I understand that this is a low-budget film, and we don’t need to see the flames, but the fire doesn’t seem to have any effect on our characters. The film is set in 1980, but except for Pete’s landline and message machine, there was nothing that would suggest it.

In general, this film has no stakes. There could have been, but the script (written by Steven Barr and Richard Zelniker) just… doesn’t have any. Pete could have seemed more dysfunctional. There could have been threats; instead, it was just different people floating in and out of Pete’s life, with no reaction on Pete’s part.

That said, Billy Gardell does a good job in his first dramatic role. He never feels like he has to hold back his comedic background to play serious. It felt like a very natural role for him. The rest of the characters were, honestly, all a blur. None of them ever felt strong enough to learn their names.

Director Richard Zelniker made a slick move, taking the opportunity to make a “one shot” out of most of the movie. Most of the film takes place with Pete in his slots room, and that is shot to look like it was done in one, single take. Unfortunately, this didn’t really work for me. The scene is slow, the camera feels floaty and soft, which makes the scene feel even slower. Plus, I felt like the scene could have used a few closeups, especially when the cleaning woman was placing something around the room. I think they were stones, but we never get a close look.

Ultimately, The Vortex is supposed to be about struggles of a gambling addict. Instead, it really just shows the average day in the life of a gambler. His day (as a whole) is neither good nor bad. He faces the mafia with no consequences; he meets a few random people that seem to have no outstanding effect on him; he hangs out with some regulars who you could say are friends. There are no stakes, and there is the fire story which literally feels like it is part of a different film. The Vortex is a pass from me.