THE VORTEX REVIEW
“ A relatively harmless one-setting noir drama that showcases some fine work by Billy Gardell”
You can’t really find a more cinematic locale than Las Vegas, Nevada, even when–as is sometimes the case with Richard Zelniker’s oddly-titled, The Vortex– you’re not always sure that the movie is actually being filmed in Las Vegas.
After a preamble informing the viewer about Vegas’ deadliest fire that struck the MGM Grand in November 1980, one that’s easy enough to confirm as a true event, we meet Billy Gardell’s Pete Finnigan, a Vegas stand-up comic who has a serious gambling problem that’s put him in hock with everyone. On the fateful night of the fire, Billy is trying his luck at video poker in order to settle up with those he owes money to, including a tough loan shark named Jimmy (Christopher Titus). Throughout the night, he is visited by a number of odd characters, but first, he’s visited by an indigenous cleaner (Emily Alabi), who puts spiritual stones around Pete to help improve his luck, although other slot machines in the room seem to be “breaking” for others before Pete can win on his machine.
It’s a fairly simple premise, basically just following this affable character as he is hoping for a lucky break well after his luck has clearly run out. It’s all about his interaction with a variety of people, both colleagues from the casino and those he knows well to absolute strangers. Over the course of the film, we hear about how that particular room is thought to be haunted or possessed, though it’s never clear how the indigenous cleaner Pete meets might be involved with the odd occurrences the pit boss mentions.
Probably most interesting supporting character (and performance) comes from Jeremy Luke as the “accordionist” Johnnie, one of Pete’s friends, even though Johnnie suspects Pete seems of having something going on with Johnnie’s hot wife Shirin (Azita Ghanizada). Other than Titus (who one had his very own television show of the same name), there are very few familiar names and faces, because The Vortex is deliberately a showcase for Gardell, presumably a character actor who proves to be the perfect collaborator with Zelniker, more than making up for some of the film’s weaker roles and writing. Not all the characters work quite as well, including an Indian airplane mechanic who seems a bit too much like a stereotype, and that can be attributed as much to the screenplay Zelniker co-wrote, as to some of the actors cast.
Otherwise, it’s fairly riveting for a movie mostly set in that single location of the MGM Grand slots room. At times, it’s hard to determine whether Zelniker had access to an actual Vegas slots room or that his production designer Elena Cozlovschi helped create that illusion. One thing that does detract from any sense of authenticity is there aren’t other background people mulling around Billy and those he is interacting with, as is almost always the case in Vegas casinos at all hours of the night and day. Also, the camerawork isn’t great, moving around a bit too much to try to make up for the lack of other action. Otherwise, this story is enhanced nicely by a jazzy score composed by Asdru Sierra, thought that sometimes goes overboard as well.
There is never a clear explanation for the film’s title or what may have caused that fateful fire, which we only see from a distance, presumably from archival footage. By that point, Gardell has won the viewer over with such a likable character, and the viewer is pulled into this particular moment in his life via his various interactions.
Not everyone is going to be fully on board with what Zelniker might be trying to achieve with The Vortex, especially as his film takes a particularly dark turn, then just ends in a quizzical way, never quite explaining why the story had to take place on the fateful night of that MGM Grand fire. That aside, Richard Zelniker’s The Vortex is a relatively harmless one-setting noir drama that showcases some fine acting by Billy Gardell and others in the supporting cast.
Rating: 6.5/10
The Vortex opened theatrically in 2025, but it’s now available to rent digitally on Prime Video and Apple TV.
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