{"id":219989,"date":"2025-09-12T04:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T04:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219989\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T04:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T04:48:12","slug":"vince-vaughn-al-pacino-in-vegas-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219989\/","title":{"rendered":"Vince Vaughn, Al Pacino In Vegas drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLooking like it was a script plucked straight out of the 1970s, maybe even the \u201950s, the richly entertaining midrange drama Easy\u2019s Waltz goes down easy. It\u2019s an engrossing character study of the kind of Vegas lounge singer that ought to be in that museum on the Strip that is full of salvaged signs of the Las Vegas that has been torn down and replaced by much glitzier new-age models. That probably is an apt description of Easy (Vince Vaughn<\/a>) himself, a guy just trying to make ends meet by running a restaurant on the outskirts and performing nightly. He\u2019s a Vic Damone-ish singer, really talented with the phrasing of a lyric and dedicated to delivering for the few faithfuls who actually come to see him perform.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is his night job, as he also has to look out for the staff and make sure ends meet. Into his life comes mover and shaker Mickey Albano (Al Pacino<\/a>), who sees something in Easy that he can exploit and convinces him that he belongs at the Wynn Hotel on the Strip instead and he can make it happen. He becomes a mentor, and soon Easy is getting the bigger break he never thought would happen. Easy is the kind of Vegas fixture who could see the big time happening just \u201cover there\u201d in the glitzy distance of the world\u2019s most famous gambling town. But the Sinatra era is dead; this now is a place where stars do \u201cresidencies.\u201d There are still lounges, though, and Easy fits right in.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe complication for him is devotion to his troubled younger brother Sam (Simon Rex<\/a>), who acts as his \u201cmanager\u201d but is generally a screw-up. It doesn\u2019t change, and Sam\u2019s stupid moves affect his relationship with Mickey, landing him in increasing trouble. Mickey is an old-style smooth operator \u2014 but don\u2019t cross him, or he will show up with his goon squad for some beating-up time. Easy also has to deal with his mother (Mary Steenburgen<\/a>), a tough cookie he is paying to keep above water. His visit to her is the kind of single scene where an Oscar winner like Steenburgen knocks it out of the park. We instantly know this woman, and it isn\u2019t pretty.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat title \u2014 Easy\u2019s Waltz \u2014 is one that instantly suggests this is going to be the kind of character-based movie Hollywood studios used to thrive on but now barely touch. This indie film ,which had its world premiere Thursday as a Special Presentation at the Toronto<\/a> Film Festival, marks the feature writing-directing debut of Nic Pizzolatto, who proved in the first season of HBO\u2019s True Detective he has the chops for this sort of thing. He proves it again here with a richly entertaining Vegas-y movie that feels decades older that the era of The Hangover and Leaving Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is an actor\u2019s dream. Vaughn has one of his best roles here, a guy who can interpret everything from \u201cThe Little Drummer Boy\u201d to rock classics like \u201cEdge of Seventeen\u201d to Darin and Anka in their prime and get to their essence. But for is own good, perhaps he shouldn\u2019t drift from his longtime comfort zone by playing a game he doesn\u2019t know so well. And it is nice to see Pacino get a decent part here; I have seen him in basically throwaway or smallish role in other films this fall season including Julian Schnabel\u2019s In the Hand of Dante and Gus Van Sant\u2019s Dead Man\u2019s Wire. His Mickey Albano may be Michael Corleone-lite but nonetheless lethal when he has to turn on a dime. At 85, he still has it. However, in a sadly poignant role as the down-on-his-luck Sam, Rex really shows he has the dramatic chops to nearly steal the picture from a couple of ol\u2019 pros like Vaughn and Pacino. He is terrific.<\/p>\n

\n\tMost of the female parts, other than Steenburgen\u2019s memorable if brief turn \u2014 including Kate Mara<\/a>, Cobie Smulders<\/a> and Vegas veteran singer Shania Twain<\/a> \u2014 don\u2019t have as much to do to make an impression, a distinctive problem the 1960 Ocean\u2019s 11 also felt. This waltz is for the boys.<\/p>\n

\n\tProducers are Christopher Lemole, Tim Zajaros, Margot Hand and Pizzolatto. Easy\u2019s Waltz is looking for distribution.<\/p>\n

\n\tTitle: <\/strong>Easy\u2019s Waltz
Festival: <\/strong>Toronto (Special Presentations)
Sales agent: <\/strong>CAA
Director-screenwriter: <\/strong>Nic Pizzolatto
Cast: <\/strong>Vince Vaughn, Simon Rex, Kate Mara, Cobie Smulders, Shania Twain, Tim Simons, Fred Melamed, Sophia Ali, Mary Steenburgen, Al Pacino
Running time: <\/strong>1 hr 43 mins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looking like it was a script plucked straight out of the 1970s, maybe even the \u201950s, the richly…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":219990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[32706,119877,119878,171,119879,119880,53,59082,119881,64287,8790,119882,67,132,68,119883],"class_list":{"0":"post-219989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-al-pacino","9":"tag-cobie-smulders","10":"tag-easys-waltz","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-kate-mara","13":"tag-mary-steenburgen","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-shania-twain","16":"tag-simon-rex","17":"tag-tiff","18":"tag-toronto","19":"tag-toronto-film-film-festival","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-vince-vaughn"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115189521388601147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}