EASY’S WALTZ

(director/writer: Nic Pizzolatto; cinematographer: Nigel Bluck; editors: Leo Trombetta, Peter Teschner; music: Keefus Ciancia; cast: Vince Vaughn (Lew “Easy” Evans), Al Pacino (Mickey Albano), Simon Rex (Sam), Kate Mara (Lucy), Mary Steenburgen (Easy’s Mother), Cobie Smulders (Monica), Shania Twain (Vegas singer), Sophia Ali (Stacy); Runtime: 103; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Christopher Lemole, Tim Zajaros, Margot Hand, Nic Pizzolatto; Armory Films; 2025)

“Never dull.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

HBO’s True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto makes his writer-directorial debut a one-note indie drama. It’s a fuzzy character driven drama about a Las Vegas lounge singer that could have been made in the 1970s during the Sinatra days on the Strip.

Lew “Easy” Evans (Vince Vaughn) is a regular guy, just scraping by financially, pushing middle-age, living just outside of Vegas, where he’s the manager of a restaurant during the day and has a singing act at night with his band The Grifters at small bars in downtown Vegas.

The smooth gangster-connected Vegas insider, a former performer, Mickey Albano (Al Pacino, who’s 85), catches Easy’s act in a small club and spots something Vic Damone about him that he thinks can convert to being a star on today’s glitzy Strip. He hooks up the throwback singer with a gig at the ritzy Wynn Casino. This leads to fame and riches for him.

Easy’s manager is his unreliable driven younger brother Sam (Simon Rex)–a screw-up, schemer and louse. Easy’s devoted to him despite the kid screwing him numerous times in different ways.

Easy also helps support his troubled toughie mother (Mary Steenburgen) from going broke. Also hanging around the brothers is a dame named Lucy (Kate Nara), whose the girlfriend of Easy but is screwing Sam on the side. Easy’s former girlfriend Monica (Cobie Smulders), a lawyer, is seen as the one he should have married.

There’s not much to this downbeat story except for some goon action, great performances by Vaughn and Pacino, and a nostalgia for old time Vegas.

It hit my soft spot for a Las Vegas I fondly remember only because it no longer exists. Despite its familiar story of a performer being discovered and becoming a star not getting my attention, it’s good point is that it’s well-crafted and never dull. 

It played at the Toronto Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 10/7/2025  GRADE: B-
dennisschwartzreviews.com