BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS (2020) is an incredible slice of life movie. It’s not a documentary but it sure feels like it is (you even see the camera operators a couple times). It’s kind of like a more verite take on another indie drama I love, LAST NIGHT AT THE ALAMO. It’s the story of the last day of operations for a dive bar called The Roaring 20s, from the morning to the next morning. You’re in this old place full of history, walls covered in photo collages and in-jokes, now joined by hand-written signs with messages like “Y’all don’t come back now, y’hear?” You’re spending a day and a night with a bunch of drunks and weirdos and bartenders, experiencing the power of human connection and the beauty of life in all its flaws and failures and sad endings. So much to love, so much to mourn, this is life.
I love how a movie like this creates a feeling of time. No matter when you watch it you experience the start of a day, the morning greetings, the guy who brought donuts. And eventually it’s dusk, and then it’s the middle of the night, then the sun rising, and though it was only the length of one movie you feel like it was a long day. But a good one. (read the rest of this shit…)
