For many people, the worst part of quarantine isn’t the interruption to work (hopefully, most people are able to transfer their work duties to Zoom meetings and/or telecommuting software), but instead, it’s the fact that you can’t congregate at your local hangout spots. And some of the very best places to hang out with your friends and neighbors are local dive bars, as seen in the upcoming film “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets.”
Directors Bill and Turner Ross’ new film, “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” is a documentary that follows the final days of a beloved dive bar near the bright lights of Las Vegas. However, unlike the casinos that line the strip, the bar known as the Roaring 20s is dimly lit, smoke-filled, and full of regulars that have better stories than anything you might find wandering the city.
In light of the fact that most of us can’t enjoy the unique power and community that is present in a local dive bar, perhaps the upcoming release of “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” is timed perfectly to fill audiences’ hearts with the joy that those locations give us. Also, it’s a damn fine film, as we said in our review from Sundance.
We called the doc “an impressively affecting and even slightly tragic piece about the homes away from home that provide comfort, as well as just how fleeting that comfort can feel in the bright light of day. an impressively affecting and even slightly tragic piece about the homes away from home that provide comfort, as well as just how fleeting that comfort can feel in the bright light of day.”
“Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” will debut in special one-day-only virtual screenings on July 8, in honor of National Dive Bar Day. And then the film will open on July 10 on Film at Lincoln Center’s virtual cinema with a national release planned for later.
Here’s the synopsis:
In the shadows of the bright lights of Las Vegas, it’s last call for a beloved dive bar known as the Roaring 20s. That’s the premise, at least; the reality is as unreal as the world the regulars are escaping from. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is a mosaic of disparate lives, teetering between dignity and debauchery, reckoning with the past as they face an uncertain future, and singing as their ship goes down.
