Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is an intimate drama masquerading as a documentary that follows the last day of a local dive bar in Las Vegas. In unobtrusively follows the two employees as they open and run the bar and as various regulars and locals come and go.
Shot in a fly-on-the-wall manor as to evoke documentary but it quickly becomes apparent that this is artifice. This conceit wouldn't be an issue if the movie was transparent but it clearly intends for the viewer to buy into it as a reflection of reality. For anyone who has seen this year's Wendy the jig is up relatively quickly as they share some actors but it becomes clear to any viewer when Michael(Michael Martin) talks about being an actor and his clearly studied and deliberate "performance" unfolds.
The mumbled periodically incoherent dialogue spews from these desperate, banal, oblivious(if still tragic) characters. They wax poetic about their failures as their increasing intoxication erupts in pointless aggression and a base lusting that reflects the worst behaviors seen in corner bars between 2 and 4am.
There is an assumption on the part of the filmmakers that drunks are compelling but for anyone having spent any protracted amount of time around drunks while sober this is unquestionably false. They are pathetic, sad, infantile, perhaps worthy of sympathy but not of interest.
Perhaps in this year there is something to be said for the community a bar brings, and the movie has a few, extremely sparring, emotional moments, but overall the feeling is one of pointless grime. There is an obtuseness displayed as to the reality of alcoholism, a propping up of the alcoholic mythos that is not only harmful but outright dopey. For every Bukowski or Hemmingway there are millions of neglectful, suffering, destructive drunks and their stories should be careful and cautionary not celebratory.
A failure and an irresponsible failure at that.
Currently available for rent on most VOD platforms.
Don't See It.
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