Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

Dear Mark,

Docu-realist fiction picture Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets captures the last day of a Las Vegas dive bar before it calls "time" for one last evening. The flexibility of the genre enables close engagement with the characters who frequent 'The Roaring Twenties' bar, characters who are real enough to believe, even care for, but eccentric enough to maintain cinematic perspective. The film escorts the audience on the simultaneously sad, nostalgic and joyous events of this final day. A smorgasbord of alcoholics, drag queens, live singing, story-telling, and flirtations are presented in a naturalistic picture that gives a sense of what this space means to its patrons. The bar is a non-judgemental space, a warm and welcoming hub where one's true self can be liberated both by alcohol, but more importantly, by acceptance. "I was a failure before I was an alcoholic" exclaims one of the dependent returnees, a gem of a line which portrays moments of lyrical lucidity encountered on any given evening.

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets feels like witnessing the end of an era. In one sense, it is exactly that: the end of the bar's tenure, but additionally, it is symbolic of shifting American values: a decline in the tolerance and understanding of others, a chilling of the national welcome. The movie ends with a couple of the customers watching a Las Vegas sunrise, possibly capturing a dawn of hope that the spirit of 'The Roaring Twenties' may transcend, in spite of the political climate.