Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

Exempt

2020

98 mins

Directed by Turner Ross, Bill Ross IV
93%
74%
Drama

The tiny community that calls a small dive bar home becomes the focus of this documentary, capturing staff and patrons... More

The tiny community that calls a small dive bar home becomes the focus of this documentary, capturing staff and patrons in their final round before the bar closes for good.

"In the shadows of the bright lights of Las Vegas, it's last call for a beloved dive bar known as the Roaring 20s. Its regulars, a cross section of American life, form a community—tight-knit yet forged in happenstance, teetering between dignity and debauchery, reckoning with the past as they face an uncertain future. That’s the premise, at least; the reality is as unreal as the world they're escaping from. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is a mosaic of disparate lives adrift in a failed society—disillusioned and reeling, singing while their ship goes down." (Sundance Film Festival)

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Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets | Ratings & Reviews

93_%89 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
74_%35 reviews
Audience score rating

"It's "The Bachelorette" wed to "The Iceman Cometh": the setup is staged, but the tears are real."

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Variety

""Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets" may not be the straight-faced documentary it looks like, but it's a sober-eyed document of our times nonetheless."

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IndieWire

"Blurs the boundary between documentary and feature filmmaking, making for a playful, compelling sui generis work."

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Hollywood Reporter

"An absorbing portrait of drinking life in all its joys - fellowship, high spirits and fleeting, flirty intimacy - and sorrows."

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The Washington Post

"It neither romanticizes the fulltime drunk's life nor does it condemn it. It's 100-percent manufactured and 100-proof authentic."

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Rolling Stone

"In the vacuum of its 90 or so minutes, the film is a wonder."

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Vanity Fair

"Bursting with humanity, grounded in humility, and in love with the poetry of faces, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is a classic indie film that will irritate or mystify some viewers while inspiring evangelical fervor in others."

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RogerEbert.com

"It's a film comprised of snapshots, glimpses from a hazy evening. But the Ross Brothers understand that these are the moments that paint people in their best, most unguarded light."

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A.V. Club

"As a film, it's warm and beautiful without being sentimental about the temporary intimacy that alcohol can provide, creating bonds that can dissolve in the daylightlike haze but are no less legitimate in the moment for it."

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Vulture

"The most important thing is that it is genuinely great, a singular and moving glimpse of loneliness, community and finding the strength to face another day."

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Los Angeles Times

"A barfly impulsively mouthing the lyrics to Roy Orbison's "Crying" while being serenaded by his bartender is what the movies were made for."

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Film Threat

"Depicting the final day of a hangdog hangout called the Roaring 20's, located well off of the plastic fantastic glitz of the Las Vegas strip, the film makes you wonder if gentrification is even the right term for whatever is going on here."

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