Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020)

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020)

A Vegas dive bar serves up a microcosm of American fears, hopes, and failures.

7.5

Movie

United States of America
English
Documentary, Drama
2020
BILL ROSS IV, TURNER ROSS
Shay Walker
98 min

What it's about

A portrait of the lives of a disparate group of patrons and employees at an American watering hole today.

The take

This stirring peek into the final days of a shuttering Las Vegas dive might be one of the finest odes to American bar culture yet. It also serves as a powerful portrait of a particular moment deep into the disastrous Trump years, yet right before the pandemic struck.

Directors Bill and Turner Ross capture the good, bad, and ugly, allowing conversations to unfold naturally. The colorful hues of the bar create a cinematic canvas for the patrons, who awash with booze and nostalgia, uncertainty, fear, and love, spend their last day together. If there was ever a film for those who miss the rough and tumble nightlife of the pre-Covid world, this is it. 

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